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THE NEARER AND FARTHER EAST' 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

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Copyright, 1907, by Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. 



THE 
NEARER AND FARTHER EAST 

OUTLINE STUDIES OF MOSLEM LANDS 

*A£TD OF 

SIAM, BURMA, AND KOREA 

BY 
SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, F.R.G.S. 

AND 

ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN, D.D 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1908 

All rights reserved 






lUBRARY of OONC 
e wo Copies Kect 

Y 1 1908 




COPY S„ 



Copyright, 1908, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1908. 

PUBLISHED FOE THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 
ON THE UNITED STUDY OF MISSIONS. 



NorfoootJ $r*gg 

J. S. Cushing Co'."— Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



FOKEWORD 

This, the eighth text-book issued by the Central Commit- 
tee on the United Study of Missions, while it begins a new 
series, is closely allied with the seven volumes previously 
published under Latin titles. These are now issued in library 
edition with English titles, as follows : u The Beginnings of 
Missions," Louise Manning Hodgkins ; "India," Caroline 
Atwater Mason; " China," Arthur H. Smith; "Japan," 
William Elliott Griffis ; " Africa," Ellen C. Parsons ; " The 
Island World of the Pacific," Helen Barrett Montgomery; 
"Missions and Social Progress," Anna Robertson Brown 
Lindsay. 

Our present volume, " The Nearer and Farther East," 
consists of two parts, — " Moslem Lands," by Rev. Samuel 
M. Zwemer, D.D., and " Siam, Burma, and Korea," by 
Rev. Arthur Judson Brown, D.D. 

Dr. Zwemer presents the terrible need and marvellous 
opportunity of the vast almost untouched Mohammedan 
fields, while Dr. Brown paints a picture of progressive mis- 
sionary effort in comparatively small but important countries. 

The study offers greater variety than those heretofore 
presented, while maps, charts, pictures, and library issued 
by the Central Committee will afford much illustrative 
material. 

Dr. Zwemer has edited the book and furnished valuable 
assistance on maps and charts. 

Mrs. HENRY W. PEABODY, 

Beverly, Mass. 
Miss E. HARRIET STANWOOD, 

Congregational Bouse, Boston, 
Mrs. DECATUR M. SAWYER, 

Montclair, N.J. 
Mrs. CHARLES N. THORPE, 

Wither spoon Building, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Miss ELIZABETH C. NORTHUP, 

Waltham, Mass. 
Mrs. A. V. POHLMAN, 

51U3 Race Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Miss OLIVIA H. LAWRENCE, 

25 East 22d Street, New York City. 
Miss GRACE T. COLBURN, 

Secretary and Treasurer > 

Newton Centre, Mass. 
V 



OUTLINE STUDIES 

Moslem Lands 



Siani, Burmah, and Korea 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Islam : its Character and its Conquests . 1 

The scene around the Kaaba — Many races 
and many languages — A world-wide religion 

— The extent of Islam from Sierre Leone to 
Canton — Present numbers and distribution — 
The situation in Africa and its peril — The 
strength of Islam in Asia — In India — The 
Philippines — Russia — Languages spoken by 
Moslems — Bible translations — The govern- 
ments under which Moslems live — The signifi- 
cance of this fact — Turkish misrule — British 
rule in India — - How Islam became a world re- 
ligion — Causes — Mohammed's great commis- 
sion — Moslem conquest — Xo caste — What 
Moslems believe — The man and the book — 
The Moslem idea of God — The spirit world 

— Jinn — The Books of God — The Koran — 
Verses — Its defects — The prophets major and 
minor — Jesus Christ — Denial of Atonement — 
Mohammed — The day of judgment — Heaven 
and hell — Predestination — Every -day religion 

— The confession of the creed — Prayer — The 
Moslem Lent — Legal alms — The pilgrimage — 
A Mohammedan funeral — Without Christ and 
without hope. 

CHAPTER II 

The Social Evils of Islam .... 37 
W T hy missions to Moslems — Mrs. Bishop's 
testimony — Low ideals of conduct and char- 
acter — Moslem ethics — Untruthfulness — 



Vlll CONTENTS 

PAGB 

When a lie is justifiable — Livingstone's testi- 
mony — Lying a fine art — Immorality — The 
seclusion and degradation of women — Poly- 
gamy and divorce — Women regarded as a 
chattel — Laws of divorce — Slavery — The 
slave market — Cruelty and intolerance — Igno- 
rance and illiteracy — Paucity of literature — 
General ignorance — Superstition and quackery 

— Charms and amulets — Tree worship — The 
Gospel the only remedy. 

CHAPTER in 

The Story of Missions to Moslems . . 71 
The centuries of neglect — Lull's complaint 

— Henry Martyn — Dr. Jessup's classic — Islam 
passed by — Typical pioneers and typical fields 

— Need of brevity in treatment — Occupied 
lands — Three great pioneers — Raymund Lull 

— His birth and early life — Call — Service — 
Martyrdom — Henry Martyn — His character 
and call — Voyages — Controversy — Death — 
Pfander — A master of languages — At Ker- 
manshah — Expelled from Russia — His method 
and success — The Gospel in North Africa — 
Marks of early Christianity — The North Africa 
Mission — Morocco — Algeria — Tunis — Tri- 
poli — Converts in these lands — Egypt and the 
Christian Crusade — The Church Missionary 
Society — The Nile press — The Cairo Confer- 
ence — The Turkish Empire — Moslems neg- 
lected — But much accomplished — The Arabic 
Bible — Present status — Arabia — Long neg- 
lected — Keith Falconer and the Scotch Mission 

— The Danish Church — Bishop French — The 
American Arabian Mission — Peter J. Zwemer 

— Other martyrs — Missions in Persia — Early 
efforts — Growth of the C. M. S. Mission — 
The American Presbyterian Mission — Work 



CONTENTS IX 

PAGE 

for Moslems in India — Results — Converts — 
Gospel triumphs in the Dutch East Indies — 
Sumatra and Java — Hester Needham — Saint 
and martyr — Converts in Sumatra — Java. 

CHAPTER IV 

The Work that Remains to be Done . . 113 
The unoccupied fields : — Where work has be- 
gun — Where it has not yet been attempted — 
Darkest Africa — The Sudan — Its call to-day 

— The Moslem peril — Islam or Christ — Pastor 
Wurz's testimony — Uganda — Moslem women 
in the Central Sudan and their condition — 
Immorality — Darkest Asia — Neglected oppor- 
tunities — Kafiristan — Afghanistan and Balu- 
chistan — Neglected Arabia — Russia and 
Bokhara — A pen-picture — Victory is certain 

— Mohammedans in China — Long neglected 

— Early entrance — Present numbers — Tur- 
kestan — The land and the people — A mar- 
riage ceremony — Difficulties of work for 
Moslems — Divorce between morality and re- 
ligion — Intolerance — Persecution — Objec- 
tions to Christian teaching — The temporal 
power — No free press — Encouragements — 
Change in the Moslem mind — Thirst for a 
Mediator — Many opportunities — A trumpet- 
call from Algiers — A challenge to faith — 
Fling out the banner. 



CHAPTER V 
Siam 157 

Siam — Boundaries — Area — Climate — 
Physical Geography — Flora — Products — Ex- 
ports and imports — Races — Population — 
The people of Laos — Chinese the strongest ele- 



CONTENTS 



menb in Siam — Characteristics of the Siamese 

— Remarkable progress — Police — Schools — 
Railroads — Desire for education — Government 

— Unstable foundation of society — Intemper- 
ance — Gambling — Bangkok, the capital — 
Lack of sanitation — Population — Roads and 
canals — Commerce — The white elephants — 
Ayuthia — Important cities and towns — His- 
tory and government — Boasted antiquity — 
Early wars — Enlightened policy of present 
king — His commissioners — Constitutional 
features of government — Protestant missions 

— Period of beginnings — First missionaries — 
The Congregational Mission — Early discour- 
agements — Lack of apparent success — With- 
drawal of mission to China — American Baptist 
Missionary Union — Converts — Disasters — 
Closing of mission — Permanent results — Pres- 
byterian Missions — Difficulties — End of oppo- 
sition — Progress — Proclamation of religious 
liberty — Stations — Scope of the work — Be- 
ginnings in Laos — Persecution — Religious 
liberty — Present status — Work at Chieng Mai 
and Lakawn — Results of missionary effort — 
Social reforms — Favorable testimony — Indif- 
ferent attitude toward religion a great obstacle 

— Encouragements — Religious expectation — 
Great opportunity. 

CHAPTER VI 
Burma 209 

Area — Position — Physical features — Cli- 
mate — Flora — Population — Characteristics 
of the race — No caste — Dress — Comparative 
freedom of women — Vices — The Karens — 
Their traditions — Ready acceptance of the 
Gospel — The Talaings, or Mons — The Shans 

— The Kachins and Chins — Demon -worship- 
pers — Chinese — East Indians — Rangoon — 



CONTENTS xi 



PAGE 



Commercial importance — Other cities — Gov- 
ernment — Wars — British rule — Religions — 
Buddhism — Missionary Societies — China In- 
land Mission — Missionary Society of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church — Wesleyan Methodist 
Missionary Society — Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel — Their work among the 
Karens — Results — American Baptist Mission- 
ary Union — Persecution — Heroism of mis- 
sionaries — Success of work among the Karens 

— Difficulties of Buddhism — Work among Te- 
lains, Shans, and Kachins — Converts among 
the Chins — Medical missionaries — Educa- 
tional work — Efficient service of women mis- 
sionaries — Hopefulness of the field. 

CHAPTER VII 

Korea 257 

Korea — Physical features — Soil and scenery 

— Population — Important cities — Language 

— Characteristics of the people — Position of 
women — Dress — Customs — Revolutions — 
Religions — Buddhism — Confucianism — Sha- 
manism, the prevailing religion — Superstition 

— Sorcery — Government — Russo-Japanese 
War — Japanese Reforms — Period of Recon- 
struction — The Presbyterian Mission — The 
Methodist Mission — Persecution — Effect of 
War of 1894 — Revival — Sorai — Christian 
Village Life — Important stations — Work for 
women — Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel — Southern Presbyterian Mission — Co- 
operation of Missionary Workers — Canadian 
Presbyterian Mission — Other Workers — Causes 
for Spread of the Gospel — Obstacles — Koreans 
an example to Christians — A Tonic to Faith 

— Call for immediate evangelization. 

Index 317 



FOUR CHAPTERS 



ON 



MOSLEM LANDS 

FOR THE 

UNITED STUDY TEXT-BOOK (1908) 

BY 

SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, F.K.G.S. 



"Mohammedanism is a profound theme, and one 
which has occupied the minds of many accomplished 
scholars. It has been the subject of much patient re- 
search and careful thought by some of the greatest stu- 
dents of history. Dr. Johnson once remarked that ' there 
are two objects of curiosity — the Christian world and 
the Mohammedan world ; all the rest may be considered 
as barbarous.' The subject is worthy of a careful exami- 
nation, both for its own sake as one of the enigmas of 
religious history, and also to prepare our minds for an 
intelligent understanding of the amazing task to which 
God is leading the Church ; viz. the conversion of the 
Moslem world to Christianity. The duty of Christianity 
to Mohammedanism, the enormous difficulties in the 
way of discharging it, the historic grandeur of the con- 
flict, the way in which the honor of Christ is involved in 
the result, and the brilliant issues of victory all combine 
to make this problem of the true relation of Christian 
missions to Islam one of the most fascinating and mo- 
mentous themes which the great missionary movement 
of the present century has brought to the attention of 
the Christian church." — Rev. James S. Dennis, D.D. 



xv 



MOSLEM LANDS 

CHAPTER I 

ISLAM : ITS CHARACTER AND ITS CONQUESTS 

The Scene around the Kaaba. — Let us imagine Scene 
that we are standing among the vast throng of ^ ou £ d 
worshippers facing the Kaaba in the sacred City 
of Mecca, Anno Domini 1907. It is the month 
of the pilgrimage, the twelfth of the lunar cal- 
endar, and this is the second day of our pilgrim- 
age. Yesterday the thousands on camels and 
horseback and the ten thousands on foot reached 
Mecca and, having assumed the garb of pil- 
grims, a strip of white cloth, entered the 
mosque, kissed the Black Stone and made the 
circuit of the Kaaba seven times. They drank 
from the holy well of Zem Zem and ran the 
race between the hills Safa and Merwa like 
Hagar of old in search of water. To-day, facing 
the place where Abraham stood when he built 
the house, as they believe, the mighty throng 
recite with one accord : — 

" There is no god but Allah. 

" God is great. 

" There is no god save Allah alone. 

" He hath performed His promise and hath aided His 
servant and put to flight the hosts of infidels by Himself 
alone. There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is His 
apostle." 

B 1 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Many 

Languages 



A World- 
wide Reli- 
gion 



The tongue spoken is Arabic, but those who 
speak it all around us are surely not only Arabs, 
but Moslems from every nation under heaven, 
who show by feature and form that when at 
home they speak Russian, Turkish, Persian, 
Pashtu, Bengali, Urdu, Chinese, Malay, Swaheli, 
Hausa, and other languages. Around the same 
Kaaba diverse lands and civilizations meet 
every year to profess one religion and repeat 
the same ritual. 

On the streets of Mecca one may see, drawn 
together by a common faith, the Turkish effendi 
in Paris costume with Constantinople etiquette; 
the half-naked Bedouin of the desert ; the fierce 
Afghan mountaineer ; the Russian trader from 
the far north ; the almond-eyed Moslem from 
Yunnan ; the Indian graduate from the Calcutta 
universities ; blue-eyed Persians, black Somalis, 
Hausas, Javanese, Sudanese, Eg}^ptians, Ber- 
bers, Kabyles, and Moors, — representatives of 
the Mohammedan World. 

A World-wide Religion. — If we regard num- 
bers, Islam is perhaps the mightiest of all the 
non-Christian religions ; as regards its geo- 
graphical distribution, it is the only religion 
besides Christianity which holds a world-empire 
of hearts in its grasp ; and its wonderful and 
rapid spread proves beyond a doubt that it is a 
great missionary religion and aims at world- 
conquest. Mohammed's word has been ful- 
filled : " So we have made you the centre of 
the nations that you should bear witness to 
men." 



ISLAM 3 

The old, almost unknown, pagan pantheon 
at Mecca has become the religious capital and 
the centre of universal pilgrimage for one- 
seventh of the human race ! Islam in its 
present extent embraces three continents, and 
counts its believers from Sierra Leone in Africa 
to Canton in China, and from Tobolsk, Siberia, 
to Singapore and Java. In Russia, Moslems 
spread their prayer-carpets southward toward 
Mecca ; at Zanzibar they look northward to the 
Holy City ; in Kansu and Shensi millions of 
Chinese Moslems pray toward the west, and in 
the wide Sudan they look eastward toward 
the Beit Allah and the Black Stone, a vast 
Moslem brotherhood. 

Present Numbers and Distribution. — The best Moslem 
estimates of the total Mohammedan population p °P ulatlon 
of the world lead to the belief that there are 
between 200,000,000 and 250,000,000 Avho are 
at least nominally followers of Mohammed. At 
the Cairo Conference, held in 1907, carefully 
prepared statistics gave the total number of 
Mohammedans as 232,966,170. 

Islam has covered the largest area in Africa, 
where its conquest and missionary propaganda 
has resulted in a stronghold of Mohammedan- 
ism along the whole Mediterranean. North of 
twenty degrees north latitude the Moslems 
constitute ninet}'-one per cent of the total 
population ! Thirty-six per cent of Africa's 
entire population is Mohammedan, or nearly 
59,000,000 souls out of the whole number of 
161,000,000. South of the equator there are 



4 MOSLEM LANDS 

already over 4,000,000 Mohammedans, and in 
the Congo Free State there are said to be nearly 
2,000,000. 

islam in The situation in Africa, as regards Islam, is 

alarming, and can be summarized in the words 
of Rev. Charles R. Watson, D.D., " The mis- 
sionary problem of Africa is not paganism, 
which fast crumbles away before the Gospel of 
Christ, but Islam, which resists like adamant the 
appeals of the herald of the cross." 1 Dr. W. 
R. Miller, for many years a missionary in West 
Africa, states that "Islam seems to be spreading 
in Lagos, the Yoruba country, Sierra Leone, 
and the French Sudan ; but in most of these 
places, as also in the Nupe country, it is of a 
very low order, and in the presence of a vigorous 
Christian propaganda it will not add strength 
finally to Islam. Still the number of Moslems 
is undoubtedly increasing greatly. Islam and 
Christianity between them are spoiling heathen- 
ism, and will probably divide the pagan peoples 
in less than fifty years." 2 

In Asia In Asia there are 169,000,000 Moslems, one- 

seventh of the entire population, while in Eu- 
rope Islam has been crowded back through the 
centuries, since it was defeated in Spain, and now 
numbers less than 6,000,000 adherents. 

The following countries in Asia are predomi- 
nantly or wholly Moslem : Arabia, Asia Mi- 
nor, Mesopotamia, Turkestan, Bokhara, Khiva, 
Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Java, Sumatra, Cele- 

1 "The Mohammedan World of To-day," p. 47. 

2 Ibid., p. 285. 



ISLAM 5 

bes, and the southern islands of the Philippine 
group. 

The chief numerical strength of the Moham- India 
medan faith, however, is in India, which has a 
larger Moslem population than all Africa and 
far more than the total populations of Arabia, 
Persia, Egypt, and the Turkish Empire com- 
bined. By the last government census the 
number of Moslems in India is 62,458,077. In 
Bengal alone there are 25,495,416, and in the 
Punjaub, 12,183,345. In the Dutch East Indies 
there are nearly 30,000,000 Moslems out of a 
total population of 36,000,000. The number 
of Moslems in China is variously given from 
20,000,000 to 30,000,000, the largest number 
being in the province of Kansu, in the extreme 
northwest, where 8,350,000 are reported. Some 
6,500,000 are found in Shensi in the north, and 
3,500,000 in Yunnan in the extreme south- 
west. In Peking there are 100,000 Moslems, 
and Canton has four mosques. 

In the Philippines there are about 300,000 Philippines 
Mohammedans, men of courage and wild fa- 
naticism, who fought for their faith with 
splendid devotion against the American troops 
in 1902-1903, but suffered ignominious de- 
feat. 1 

In the Russian Empire there are 13,889,421 Russia 
Moslems, most of them in Asia. It is re- 
markable that we hear much more of the Rus- 
sian Jews, who form only four per cent of the 
population, than of Russian Moslems, who form 
1 See pp. 221-226 in " Christus Redemptor." 



b MOSLEM LANDS 

over eleven per cent of the total population in 
that great empire. 
Language Languages spoken by Moslems. — The sacred 

language of the Moslem is Arabic, and the 
Arabic Koran is the text-book in all Moslem 
schools from Morocco to Canton and from 
Bokhara to Zanzibar. As a written language, 
the Arabian tongue has millions of readers, 
and" yet to over three-fourths of the " true 
believers " Arabic is a dead language. Sixty- 
three million Moslems speak the languages of 
India ; 30,000,000 speak Chinese, and as many 
more the Malay tongue ; others Turkish, Per- 
sian, Slavonic, and the languages of Africa. 
All of which shows the polyglot character of 
the Mohammedan world. 

The Bible, in whole or in part, has been 
translated into nearly every language spoken 
by Moslems ; but not the Koran, their own 
sacred book. This is generally circulated only 
in the original Arabic. Interlinear translations 
of the Koran with the original text exist, how- 
ever, in Persian, Urdu, Pushtu, Turkish, Java- 
nese, Malayan, and two or three other languages. 
A missionary among the 25,000,000 Moslems 
of Bengal is preparing a translation into Ben- 
gali, with notes, so that the Moslems may see 
for themselves the real character of their spuri- 
ous revelation ! 

To the bulk of the Mohammedans Arabic is 
a dead language, and the ritual and prayers 
are no more understood by the people than 
the Latin prayers are by the Roman Catholic 



ISLAM 7 

peasantry in Europe. The chief literary Ian- Literary 
guages of Islam next to Arabic are Turkish, Languages 
Persian, Urdu, and Bengali. In all of these 
languages there is a large religious literature, 
dogmatic, apologetic, and controversial. Even 
in Chinese there is a considerable amount of 
Mohammedan literature. Some works are 
published under the imprimatur of the Em- 
peror, but a translation of the Koran is not 
permitted. 

From all these facts in regard to race and 
language and the world-wide distribution of. 
the peoples that follow this greatest of non- 
Christian religions, it is very evident that the 
environment and conditions differ widely in the 
Mohammedan world. Perhaps the most im- 
portant factor that differentiates the Moslem 
masses as regards their accessibility to the 
missionary is government. 

The Governments under which Moslems Live. Government 
— These may be grouped into three classes : 
the Moslem lands, which are still under a purely 
Mohammedan government; those where Mos- 
lems live under the rule of those who are 
neither Moslem nor Christian; and the lands 
actually or nominally under Christian rule. To 
the first class belong Turkey in Europe and in' 
Asia, parts of Arabia, Afghanistan, Persia, 
Morocco, and Tripoli; to the second class, the 
Moslems in China and in a few independent 
states of Africa and Asia. All the other Mo- 
hammedans in the world are under Christian 
rule, protection, or suzerainty to the number of 



8 



MOSLEM LANDS 



161,000,000, or nearly three-fourths of the total 
number in the world. 

This fact is a startling evidence of the finger 
of God in history and a wonderful challenge of 
opportunity. Once the empire of Islam was 
co-extensive with the faith of Islam. In the 
year 907 a.d. the caliphate included Spain, 
Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, Asia 
Minor, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Turkestan, Afghan- 
istan, Baluchistan, and the region around the 
Caspian Sea. To-day the Sultan, Abdul Hamid, 
• from his lordly palace on the Bosphorus, rules 
over a smaller Moslem population by one-half 
than does the Protestant Queen Wilhelmina in 
her island possessions in Malaysia with their 
29,289,440 Mohammedans. The balance of 
political power throughout the whole Moham- 
medan world is coming to be more and more in 
the hands of Christian governments, and it i& 
no wonder that this has resulted in political 
unrest on the part of Moslem leaders who are 
zealous of their lost prestige and anxious to 
strengthen the empire of Turkey as represent- 
ing the old caliphate. 

Turkey is perhaps as well governed as any 
other state under Mohammedan rule, but of the 
system of civil tyranny that obtains there, Dr. 
James S. Dennis says : " A volume might be 
written upon this one subject of Turkish mis- 
rule. Would that some Dante of contemporary 
literature might present it in its realistic 
hideousness ! although we fear no touch of art 
could sufficiently relieve the revolting ghastli- 



ISLAM 9 

ness of this hell upon earth to save the reader 
from a shuddering misery in its perusal." x 
The actual condition of affairs was summed up 
by a writer in the Congregationalist (April 8, 
1897) as follows : — 

" Turkey skilfully and systematically represses what 
Christian nations make it their business to nurture in all 
mankind as manhood. In her cities there are magnifi- 
cent palaces for her sultans and her favorites. But one 
looks in vain through her realm for statues of public 
benefactors. There are no hails where her citizens could 
gather to discuss policies of government or mutual 
obligations. Their few newspapers are emasculated by 
government censors. Not a book in any language can 
cross her borders without permission of public officers, 
most of whom are incapable of any intelligent judgment 
of its contents. Art is scorned. Education is bound. 
Freedom is a crime. The tax-gatherer is omnipotent. 
Law is a farce. Turkey has prisons instead of public 
halls for the education of her people. Instruments of 
torture are the stimulus to their industries." 

Contrast these conditions with British rule British 
in India or the freedom of the press and of Rule 
speech in Egypt, and it is plain that govern- 
ment can be a great help or a great hinderance 
in the work of missions. Add to this that ac- 
cording to Mohammedan law the death penalty- 
should be imposed on any one who becomes an 
apostate from the state church of Islam, and 
the contrast between different Moslem lands as 
mission fields becomes very apparent. Thank 
God the door of opportunity and of liberty is so 
wide to-day that three-fourths of the Moham- 

1 "Christian Missions and Social Progress," Vol. I, p. 
256. 



10 



MOSLEM LANDS 



God's 
Plough 



Reasons for 
Spread of 
Islam 



medan world are entirely accessible to the col- 
porteur, the preacher, and the teacher, man or 
woman. God's providence, in the course of 
history, is God's ploughshare to prepare the 
soil for the sowing of His Word. 

" Wise men and prophets know not how, 
But work their Master's will ; 
The kings and nations drag the plough 
His purpose to fulfil." 

How Islam became a World-wide Religion. — 
The faith of Islam was once in a minority of 
one, and Mohammed himself fled as an exile 
from Mecca to Medina in a.d. 622, the year 
of the Hegira, which dates the Moslem era. 
What were the causes for its rapid spread and 
wide conquest ? Many theories have been given, 
and the true explanation of the spread of Islam 
is probably the sum of all these theories. The 
condition of Arabia before Mohammed ; the 
weakness of the Oriental churches; their corrupt 
state ; the condition of the Roman and Per- 
sian empires ; the easy-going character and low 
moral standards of the new religion ; the power 
of the sword and of fanaticism ; the great truths 
of Islam ; the genius of Mohammed and of his 
successors ; the hope of plunder and the love of 
conquest, — such are some of the causes given 
for the growth of the new religion from a mi- 
nority of one into an army of 200,000,000 in 
thirteen centuries. 

Each one of these many factors played an 
important part in the rapid spread of the new 
faith as preached by Mohammed. In this brief 



ISLAM 11 

outline study of so large a subject we must 
leave them to be worked out by reference to 
the many books on this subject. 1 

The last commission of Mohammed was in 
accord with his whole life, and Sir Edwin Ar- 
nold follows Moslem tradition when, in his 
poem on the "Passing of Mohammed," he 
makes the dying Prophet say to Osama, his 
general, ready for the march: — 

" I, here consuming, cheat my fever's flame 
Praising the Lord : but thou, why tarriest thou ? 
Smite me the unbelievers ! Fall at dawn 
Upon those dogs of Obna ! Let attack 
Sound the first tidings of thee ! Send forth scouts, 
And Allah give thee victory ! Guide my palm 
That I may lay it on thy head, and leave 
A blessing there. Go in God's peace ! " 

By the example and precept of its apostle, The Early 
Islam is one of the few aggressive religions Con< i uest 
of the world. It began with the Saracen 
conquest and continued for thirteen centu- 
ries until the Wahhabi revival and the Pan- 
Islamic movement of to-day. In the words 
of the Koran, the Moslem must " fight against 
infidels till strife be at an end and the religion 
be all of God." And Mohammed said, "He 
who dies and has not fought for the religion 
of Islam, nor has even said in his heart, 'Would 
to God I were a champion that could die in the 
road of God,' is even as a hypocrite." And 
again, still more forcibly, "The fire of hell 

1 See Bibliography at the end of this chapter ; also " Lux 
Christi," pp. 48-51 ; " Christus Liberator," pp. 58-62. 



12 MOSLEM LANDS 

shall not touch the legs of him who is covered 
with the dust of battle in the road of God." 
In spite of cruelty, bloodshed, dissension, and 
deceit, the story of the Moslem missionary con- 
quest, as given by Haines and Arnold, 1 is full 
of heroism and inspiration. If so much was 
done in the name of Mohammed, what should 
we not dare to do in the name of Jesus Christ ! 

And before we consider what kind of creed 
was carried by fire and sword, by force and by 
persuasion, over three continents, it is well to 
remember what is already evident from its 
world-conquest, that Islam is a religion without 
caste. It extinguishes all distinctions founded 
upon race, color, or nationality. All unbelievers 
are out-castes, all believers belong to the high- 
est caste. The Hindu who turns Mohammedan 
loses his caste, but becomes a member of the 
great brotherhood of Islam. Slaves have held 
thrones and founded dynasties. The first one 
who led the call to prayer was Bilal, a Negro of 
Medina. There is no sacerdotal class of min- 
isters in Islam. Each man offers prayer to 
God himself ; the leader of prayers in a mosque 
has no spiritual authority. 

What Moslems Believe. — Islam was a revolt 
against paganism and idolatry and therefore 
cannot, in a sense, be classed with the heathen 
religions. Its popular creed, " There is no god 
but Allah and Mohammed is Allah's apostle," 

1 " Islam as a Missionary Religion," C. R. Haines, 
S.P.C.K., London, 1889 ; " The Preaching of Islam," T. W. 
Arnold, London, 1896. 



ISLAM 13 

emphasizes monotheism with violent fanaticism. 
The true Moslem man or woman is intolerant 
of error in this matter. Even an Arab child 
will grow hot-tempered when he hears a word 
from the Christian missionary that seems to Belief 
conflict with the Moslem idea of God's unity. 
This Puritan spirit is a praiseworthy trait in 
any religion. Islam has in it the stuff that 
martyrs and reformers are made of ; its pro- 
fessors are valiant for the truth, as they 
understand it, and have the spinal column 
of conviction. 

The Koran is not the word of God, but the The Koran 
Moslem believes it is, and believes it with his 
whole heart. While their belief is unreasoning, 
and though the Koran is anything but divine, 
it is no small matter to realize that in these 
days of universal doubt and irreverence there 
are millions of Moslems who believe that God 
has spoken to man by the prophets ; that His 
word contains neither errors nor untruths ; 
and that the end of all disputation is a " Thus 
saith the Lord." Converts from Islam love the 
Bible with a passionate love, and respect its 
authority. But the Koran is not the only 
source for Moslem teaching. Far more impor- 
tant than the book is the man who gave it. 
Mohammed's life and teaching, his table-talk, Mohammed 
Tiis manners, his dress, his behavior, to the 
most childish details are the foundation of what 
is called Tradition. And Moslem tradition is 
the warp and woof of their creed and their 
conduct. What Mohammed believed, they 



14 MOSLEM LANDS 

must believe, too, and believe it because* he did. 
The prophet said, " It is incumbent upon the 
true believer to have a firm faith in six arti- 
cles; viz., in God, His Angels, His books, His 
prophets, the day of judgment, and the predes- 
tination for good and evil." Let us see what 
this belief includes, 
idea of God (1) The Moslem Idea of God. — St. James in 
his epistle gives us a test as regards the 
ethical and religious value of mere monotheism 
apart from the Trinity in the words : " Thou 
believest that there is one God ; thou doest 
well; the devils also believe and tremble." 
Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans believe in 
the only God, and yet differ very widely in their 
interpretation of this idea. 

James Freeman Clarke, writing of this " worst 
form of monotheism," sums up the distinction 
thus : " Islam saw God but not man ; saw the 
claims of deity but not the rights of humanity; 
saw authority but failed to see freedom — there- 
fore hardened into despotism, stiffened into 
formalism, and sank into death. Mohammed 
teaches a God above us, Moses teaches a God 
above us, and yet with us ; Jesus Christ teaches 
God above us, God with us and God in us." 
Another writer calls Allah, the God of Islam, 
u an absentee landlord, who, jealous of man, 
wound the clock of the universe and went away 
forever ! " 

The Koran shows that Mohammed had a 
measurably correct idea of the physical attri- 
butes of God, but an absolutely false conception 



ISLAM 15 

of His moral attributes. The Koran concep- 
tion of God is negative. Absolute sovereignty 
and ruthless omnipotence are His chief at- 
tributes, while His character is loveless as 
a Despot. The Christian truth that " God 
is love " is to the 'learned Moslem blasphemy 
and to the ignorant an enigma. Islam is " the 
Pantheism of Force." God is a Pasha and not 
a Father. 

(2) The Spirit World. — With God's name Spirits 
always on their lips, and yet with so deistic and 
fatalistic an idea of God (who is more of a 
tyrant than a father), it is no wonder that Islam 
makes much of other spiritual beings who are 
God's ministers for good and for evil. Moslems 
believe in angels, jinn, and devils, and their 
belief in these spirits is not a matter of theory, 
but intensely practical. They say angels were 
created out of light and are endowed with life, 
speech, and reason. Of the four archangels, 
Gabriel reveals the truth, Michael is patron of 
the Jews, Israfil will sound the last trumpet, 
and Azrael is the angel of death. Angels are 
inferior to the prophets (Surah 2 : 32). There 
are two recording angels for each person, who 
write down his good and his ill. Munkar and 
Nakir are two black angels with blue eyes who Angels 
interrogate men after burial in the grave and 
mete out terrible blows to those whose replies 
prove them not Moslems. Therefore, at a 
funeral, parting instructions are given the 
deceased in the grave. 

One can go to the stories of the Arabian 



16 MOSLEM LANDS 

Nights to learn how large a place the belief in 
jinn or genii occupies to-day in the Moslem 
mind. There is no pious Moslem who doubts 
that these spirits exist and are continually 
the cause of many things that seem to be super- 
natural or startling in natur'e. The Koran tells 
how they helped Solomon to build the temple and 
how they carried his throne ; how Mohammed 
preached to a company of them and converted 
them ; and how we are to pray that their evil 
influence may not hurt us. 

They were created from fire, are of diverse 
shapes, often invisible, and of great number ; 
they marry and propagate, but are mortal. For 
the latter reason, the Arabs, after a meal, never 
throw away their date stones violently, for 
jinn fear they might unconsciously hurt some jinn ! 

Solomon sealed some of them up in brass bot- 
tles. The chief abode of jinn is in the moun- 
tains of Kaf, which encompass the world. They 
also frequent baths, wells, ruined houses, and 
graveyards. For fear of jinn, millions of the 
ignorant, especially the poor women and chil- 
dren, are all their lifetime subject to bondage. 
This article of the creed is the mother of a 
thousand foolish and degrading superstitions, 
yet it is fixed forever in the Moslem faith and 
cannot be abandoned until the Koran itself is 
rejected. 

A third class of spiritual beings are the 
devils. They believe in a personal Devil and 
his demonic host. Noteworthy among the lat- 
ter are Harut and Marut, two evil spirits that 



ISLAM 17 

teach men sorcery, and live near Babylon. No Demons 
Moslem begins to read the Koran or starts a 
prayer without "seeking refuge in God from 
Satan, the pelted." The reason for this epithet 
is that Mohammed said Satan used to be an 
eavesdropper at the door of heaven until God 
and the angels drove him back by pelting him 
with shooting stars ! 

(3) The Books of God. — Islam is decidedly The Books 
a bookish religion, for Moslems believe that ofGod 
God u sent down" one hundred and four sa- 
cred books. Their doctrine of inspiration is me- 
chanical. Adam, they say, received ten books ; 
Seth, fifty ; Enoch, thirty ; and Abraham, ten ; 
but all of these are utterly lost. The four 
books that remain are the Torah (Law), which 
came from Moses ; the Zabur (Psalms), which 
David received ; the Injil (Gospel), of Jesus ; 
and the Koran. The Koran is uncreated and 
eternal ; to deny this is rank heresy. And 
while the three other books are highly spoken 
of in the Koran, they now exist, Moslems say, 
only in a corrupted form, and their precepts 
have been abrogated by the final book to the 
last prophet, Mohammed. 

The Koran is a little smaller than the New Koran 
Testament in extent ; it has one hundred and 
fourteen chapters bearing fanciful titles bor- 
rowed from some word or phrase in the chap- 
ter. The book has no chronological order, 
logical sequence, or rhetorical climax. Its 
jumbled verses throw together piecemeal, fact 
and fancy, laws and legends, prayers and im- 



18 MOSLEM LANDS 

precations. It is unintelligible without a com- 
mentary, even for a Moslem. Moslems regard 
it as supreme in beauty of style and language, 
and miraculous in its origin, contents, and au- 
thority. From the Arab's literary standpoint it 
is indeed a remarkable book. Its musical jingle 
and cadence are charming, and, at times, highly 
poetical ideas are clothed in sublime language. 

Here are two typical quotations given with 
the Arabic jingle as far as possible : — 

" By the star when it passeth away, your countryman 
does not err, nor is he led astray, in what he preaches ; 
he has not his own way, but a revelation he does say; 
a Mighty One, of great sway, personally appeared to him 
in open day, where there rises the sun's ray ; high in the 
sky, he did fly ; then he drew nigh in his array, and only 
two bows' distance from him he did stay, that the reve- 
lations, which he had to say, he might to his servant 
convey. How can Mohammed's heart a falsehood state ? 
Why do you with him on his vision debate V He saw 
him another time, in the same state, at the sidrah tree 
of the limit he did wait; there to the garden of repose is 
the gate ; and whilst the tree was covered, with what at 
the top of it hovered, Mohammed attentively looked, and 
his eyes from the sight did not deviate ; for he saw the 
greatest of the signs of his Lord." . . . 

" I swear by the splendor of light 

And by the silence of night 

That the Lord shall never forsake thee 

Nor in His hatred take thee ; 

Truly for thee shall be winning 

Better than all beginning. 

Soon shall the Lord console thee, grief no longer control 

thee, 
And fear no longer cajole thee. 
Thou wert an orphan-boy, yet the Lord found room for 

thy head. 



ISLAM 19 

When thy feet went astray, were they not to the right 

path led ? 
Did He not find thee poor, yet riches around thee spread ? 
Then on the orphan-boy, let thy proud foot never tread, 
And never turn away the beggar who asks for bread, 
But of the Lord's bounty ever let praise be sung and 

said." 

One must read the remarkable book in the 
original to learn to admire its style. Much of 
its teaching, too, is remarkable. But the Koran 
is remarkable most of all, not because of its 
contents, but for its omissions ; not because of 
what it reveals, but for what it conceals of 
" former revelations." 

The defects of its teaching are many: (a) it Defects of 
is full of historical errors ; (6) it contains mon- Koran 
strous fables ; (<?) it is full of superstitions ; 
(d) it teaches a false cosmogony; (V) it per- 
petuates slavery, polygamy, divorce, religious 
intolerance, the seclusion and degradation of 
women ; and (f) petrifies social life. All this, 
however, is of minor importance compared with 
the fact that the Koran ever keeps the supreme 
question of salvation from sin in the back- 
ground and offers no doctrine of redemption 
by sacrifice. In this respect the Koran is in- 
ferior to the sacred books of Ancient Egypt, 
India, and China, though unlike them it is 
monotheistic. 

(4) The Major and Minor Prophets. — Mo- 
hammed is related to have said that there were 
124,000 prophets and 315 apostles. Six of the 
latter are designated by special titles, and are 
the major prophets of Islam. They are as 



20 MOSLEM LANDS 

Prophets follows : Adam is the chosen of God ; Noah, 
the preacher of God ; Abraham, the friend of 
God ; Moses, the spokesman of God ; Jesus, 
the word of God ; and Mohammed, the apostle 
of God. In addition to this common title, 
Mohammed has 201 other names and titles of 
honor by which he is known ! 

Only twenty-two others — minor prophets — 
are mentioned in the Koran besides these six, 
although the host of prophets is so large. 
They are : Idris, Hud, Salih, Ishmael, Isaac, 
Jacob, Joseph, Lot, Aaron, Shuaib, Zacharias, 
John the Baptist, David, Solomon, Elias, Elijah, 
Job, Jonah, Ezra, Lokman, Zu'1-Kifl, and Zu'l 
Karnain. 

Some of these are easily identified, although 
the names seem unfamiliar in form. Others 
are not easily identified with historical person- 
ages even by the Moslems themselves. Zu'l 
Karnain signifies " the One of the two-horns," 
and is Alexander the Great. The account 
given in the Koran of these prophets is con- 
fused, yet we must give credit to some Moslem 
commentators for doubting whether Lokman 
and Alexander were really prophets ! Moslems 
say that they make no distinction between the 
prophets, but love and reverence them all. 
Mohammed, however, supersedes all and sup- 
plants all in the hearts and lives of his followers. 

Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is always spoken of with respect, 
and is one of the greater prophets. But the 
idea Moslems have of Christ is after all a very 
degrading caricature instead of a true portrait. 



ISLAM 21 

They say He was miraculously born of the 
Virgin Mary ; performed great, and also puerile, 
miracles ; was an apostle of God strengthened 
by Gabriel, whom they call the Holy Spirit; 
he foretold the advent of Mohammed as Para- 
clete ; the Jews intended to crucify him, but 
God deceived them, and Judas was slain in his 
stead. He is now in one of the inferior stages 
of celestial bliss ; he will come again at the last 
day, will slay Antichrist, kill all swine, break 
the crosses that are found on churches, and 
remove the poll-tax from the infidels. He will 
reign justly for forty-five years, marry, and 
have children, and be buried in a grave ready 
for him at Medina, next to Mohammed. 

Islam denies the incarnation and the atone- Noincama- 
ment. Therefore, with all the good names and ^. a ^ d no 
titles it gives our Saviour, Islam only proves 
itself the Judas Iscariot among false religions 
by betraying the Son of Man with a kiss. Mo- 
hammed has usurped Christ's place in the hearts 
and lives of his followers. His word is their 
law, and his life their ideal. Every religion 
has its ideals, and seldom rises above them. All 
pious Moslems consider their prophet as the 
ideal of perfection and the model of conduct. 
To be perfect is to be like Mohammed. The 
great sin and guilt of the Mohammedan world 
is that it gives Christ's glory to another. All 
the prophets that came before are supplanted. 
In the Koran, Mohammed is human ; tradition 
has made him sinless and almost divine. He is 
called Light of God, Peace of the World, and 



22 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Moham- 



First of all Creatures. What history calls the 
faults of Mohammed's character, Moslems con- 
sider his perfections or privileges, and therefore 
the Mohammed of sober history and the Mo- 
hammed who has all the halo of tradition are 
two different persons. Koelle's life of Moham- 
med shows this very plainly, and.should be read 
by all who want to know why Moslems admire 
their prophet. 1 

They believe he now dwells in the highest 
med's Place h eav en and is several degrees above Jesus, our 
Saviour, in honor and station. His name is 
never uttered or written without the addition 
of a prayer. Yet a calm and critical study of 
his life proves him to have been an ambitious 
and sensual enthusiast, who did not scruple to 
break nearly every precept of the moral law to 
further his ends. (See Muir, Koelle, Sprenger, 
and Weil ; but also the earliest Moslem biog- 
raphy by Ibn Hisham.) 

(5) The Day of Judgment. — This occupies a 
large place in the Koran. It is called the Day 
of Resurrection, of Separation, of Reckoning, or 
simply the Hour. Most graphic and terrible 
descriptions portray the terror of that day. 



The 
Judgment 



1 As an example of the thousand fantastic stories related, 
take this: " If the prophet put his hand on the head of a 
child, one could recognize it by the exquisite perfume 
which his hand had imparted to it. One day the prophet 
was sleeping in the house of Annas, and he was perspiring. 
The mother of Annas collected the drops of perspiration ; 
and when the prophet asked her why she did so, she said, 
' We put this into our smelling bottles, for it is the most 
refreshing perfume.' " 



ISLAM 23 

Moslems believe in a literal resurrection of the 
body. The bone called os sacrum, they say, 
does not decay in the grave, and before the 
resurrection day God will impregnate it by a 
forty days' rain ! 

Moslems believe also in an everlasting life of Heaven 
physical joys or physical tortures. The Mos- andHeU 
lem paradise in the words of the Koran is a 
"garden of delight, . . . with couches and 
ewers and a cup of flowing wine ; their brows 
ache not from it nor fails the sense ; theirs shall 
be the Houris . . . ever virgins." What com- 
mentators say on these texts is often unfit for 
translation. The orthodox interpretation is 
literal, and so was that of Mohammed ; because 
the traditions give minute particulars of the 
sanitary laws of heaven, as well as of its sexual 
delights. The Moslem hell is sevenfold, and 
" each portal has its party." All the wealth 
of Arabic vocabulary is exhausted in describ- 
ing the terrors of the lost, and Dante's Inferno 
is a summer garden compared with the Moslem 
hell. 1 

(6) Predestination. — This last article is the Fatalism 
keystone in the arch of Moslem faith. It is the 
only philosophy of Islam, and the most fertile 
article of the creed in its effects on every-day 
life. As in the Christian Church, this doctrine 
has been fiercely discussed, but what might be 
called ultra-Calvinism has carried the day. 

God wills both good and evil; there isnoescap- 

iRead Chapter X on the " Hell of Islam" in Stanley 
Lane Poole's " Studies in a Mosque." 



24 MOSLEM LANDS 

ing from the caprice of His decree. Religion is 
Islam, i.e. resignation. Fatalism has paralyzed 
progress ; hope perishes under the weight of 
this iron bondage; injustice and social decay 
are stoically accepted; no man bears the burden 
of another; and the deadening influence of this 
fatalism can be seen and felt in every Moslem 
land. One of their own poets has summed it 
up in the lines which we might call their Psalm 
of Life : — 

" 'Tis all a chequer-board of nights and days 
Where Destiny with men for pieces plays, 
Hither and thither moves, and mates and slays, 
And one by one back in the closet lays." 

Every-day Religion. — Such a creed as we 
have briefly given in outline is matched by 
certain practical duties which every Moslem, 
man or woman, must perform to show faith by 
The Five works. These practical duties are five, and 
Duties constitute the ritual or every-day religion. 

Mohammed said : " A Moslem is one who is re- 
signed and obedient to God's will, and bears 
witness that there is no god but God and that 
Mohammed is His Apostle ; and is steadfast in 
prayer, and gives alms and fasts in the month 
of Ramazan, and makes a pilgrimage to Mecca, 
if he have the means." We give a summary of 
these five duties : — 

(1) The Confession of the Creed. — It is the 
shortest creed in the world, has been oftener 
repeated, and is so brief that it has needed no 
revision for thirteen centuries. It is taught to 
infants and whispered in the ears of the dying. 



ISLAM 25 

Five times a day it rings out as the call to 

prayer in the whole Moslem world : " There is The Creed 

no god but God and Mohammed is God's 

Apostle." On every occasion this creed is 

repeated by the believer. It is the key to 

every door of difficulty ; one hears it in the 

bazaar and the street and the mosque ; sailors 

sing it as they raise their sails ; hammals groan 

it to raise a heavy burden ; it is a battle-cry 

and a cradle song, an exclamation of delight 

and a funeral dirge. There is no doubt that 

this continual, public repetition of a creed has 

been a source of strength to Islam for ages, as 

well as a stimulus to fanaticism. 

(2) Prayer. — The fact that Moslems pray Prayer 
often, early, and earnestly has elicited the admi- 
ration of many travellers, who, ignorant of the 
real character and content of Moslem prayer, 
judge it from a Christian standpoint. What 
the Bible calls prayer and what the Moslem 
means by the same name are, however, to a 
degree, distinct conceptions. 

A necessary preliminary to every Moslem 
prayer is legal purification. Whole books have 
been written on this subject, describing the 
occasions, method, variety, and effect of ablu- 
tion by water or, in its absence, by sand. The 
ritual of purification is one of the chief shibbo- 
leths of the many Moslem sects. In Mohamme- 
dan works of theology there are chapters on 
the proper use of the toothpick, on the different 
kinds of water allowed for ablution, and on all 
the varieties of uncleanness. After washing 



26 MOSLEM LANDS 

various parts of the body three times according 
to fourteen rules, the Moslem is ready to begin 
prayer. 

The five proper times for prayer are at dawn, 
just after high noon, two hours before sunset, 
at sunset, and again two hours later. It is 
forbidden to say morning prayers after the sun 

Posture is risen. Posture is of prime importance, and 

includes facing Mecca, as well as a series of 
prostrations more easily imitated than de- 
scribed. 

The words repeated during this physical ex- 
ercise consist of Koran phrases and short chap- 
ters, which include praise, confession, and a 
prayer for guidance. Often the chapters chosen 
have no connection with the topic of prayer. 
Personal private petitions are allowed after the 
liturgical prayers, but they are not common. 
The least departure from the rule in purifica- 
tion, posture, or method of prayer nullifies its 
effect, and the worshipper must begin all over 
again. Special prayer is obligatory at an 
eclipse of the sun or moon and on the two 
Moslem festivals. 

Lent (3) The Moslem Lent. — The chief Moslem 

fast is that of the month of Ramazan. Yet it 
is a fact that Mohammedans, rich and poor, 
spend more on food in that month than in any 
other month of the year ; and it is also true that 
physicians have a run of patients with troubles 
from indigestion at the close of this religious 
fast. The explanation is simple. Although 
the fast extends an entire lunar month, it only 



ISLAM 27 

begins at dawn and ends at sunset each day. 
During the whole night it is usual to indulge 
in pleasure, feasting, and dinner parties. This 
makes clear what Mohammed meant when he 
said that " God would make the fast an ease and 
not a difficulty." On the other hand, the fast is 
extremely hard upon the laboring classes when, 
by the changes of the lunar calendar, it falls in 
the heat of summer when the days are long. 
Even then it is forbidden to drink a drop of 
water or take a morsel of food. 

(4) Legal Alms. — Compulsory alms were in Aims 
the early days of Islam collected by the reli- 
gious tax-gatherer, as they still are in some 
Mohammedan countries. Where Moslems are 
under Christian rule, the rate is paid out by 
each Mohammedan according to his own con- 
science. The rate varies greatly, and the 
different sects disagree as to what was the 
practice of the prophet. Moreover, it is difficult 

to find a precedent in the customs of pastoral 
Arabia for the present methods of acquiring 
and holding property in lands touched by civ- 
ilization. One-fortieth of the total income is 
about the usual rate. The tithe of the Old 
Testament was a much larger portion and 
was supplemented by many free-will offerings. 
Charitable offerings are also common in Islam, 
but generally speaking, the Moslem who gives 
his legal alms is satisfied that he has fulfilled 
all righteousness. 

(5) The Pilgrimage. — The Pilgrimage to Pilgrimage 
Mecca is not only one of the pillars of the 



28 



MOSLEM LANDS 



religion of Islam, but it has proved one of the 
strongest bonds of union and has always exer- 
cised a tremendous influence as a missionary 
agency. Even to-day the pilgrims who return 
from Mecca to their native villages in Java, 
India, and West Africa are fanatical ambas- 
sadors of the greatness and glory of Islam. 
For the details of the pilgrimage one must read 
Burckhardt, Burton, or other travellers who 
have risked their lives in visiting the forbidden 
cities of Islam. 
Other The Mecca pilgrimage is incumbent on every 

Pilgrimages f ree Moslem who is of age and has sufficient 
means for the journey. Many of them, unwill- 
ing to undergo the hardships of the journey, 
engage a substitute, and thus purchase the 
merit for themselves. Most Moslems also visit 
the tomb of Mohammed at Medina and claim 
the Prophet's authority for this added merit. 
Pilgrimages to tombs of local saints and the 
ancient prophets, to "footprints" of the Apostle, 
or to graves of his companions are exceedingly 
common. But none of these pilgrimages equals 
in merit that to the House of God in Mecca. 
Death A Mohammedan Funeral. — The nations that 

are without Christ are without hope. At no 
time is this so evident as in the hour of death. 
Christ has brought life and immortality to light 
in the Gospel, but, as Mrs. Bishop said, in Mos- 
lem lands there is " only a fearful looking for 
in the future of fiery indignation from some 
quarter they know not what." At the hour 
of death you may hear the same hopeless cry 



ISLAM 29 

of the Moslem women, whether in Morocco or 
in Persia ; it is a mourning without hope. 

One does not live long in an Arab town 
without seeing funerals pass. Even at mid- 
night you can often hear the loud wailing for 
the dead. As soon as a person dies in Arabia, 
he is washed and wrapped in a white shroud. 
The funeral takes place as soon as possible ; 
not only because of the climate, but because 
they believe that the sooner a Moslem is buried 
the sooner he will reach heaven. The body is Burial 
put on a wooden bier which, in the case of a 
man, has only a cloth put over it; but in the 
case of a woman a sort of arched cradle is 
placed over the body and covered with a cur- 
tain. Women and children are not generally 
allowed to attend a funeral ; and if they do, 
they follow far behind and must not approach 
the grave until the men leave. The bier is 
carried from the house on the men's shoulders, 
and instead of going slowly, they run fast with 
it. Every passer-by and neighbor tries to give 
a lift, as they think such an act meritorious; 
this makes the funeral procession very confused. 
On the way to the grave the bearers cry out, 
" There is no god but God and Mohammed is 
His Apostle." A short prayer service is held 
in a neighboring mosque or outside of the 
graveyard. But the prayers are formal, and 
scarcely a word is spoken of a resurrection 
or of victory over death — nor prayer for the 
mourning ones. All is dreary and comfortless. 

The grave is dug so that the body, lying on 



30 MOSLEM LANDS 

one side, shall have its face toward Mecca, or 
rather toward the temple in Mecca. A niche 
is dug on one side of the grave for the body 
to rest in. This is done because Mohammed 
taught his people that a dead person was con- 
scious of pain, and therefore great precautions 
are taken to prevent pressure on the body ! 

At the grave the Moslem teacher or leader 
gives instructions in a loud tone of voice to 
the dead person, putting his mouth close to the 
ear of the corpse. These instructions are to 
prepare the dead for the visit of the angels. 
Without Munkar and Nakir, already mentioned. All 
ope Arabs believe that as soon as the grave is 

covered in and the mourners depart, these two 
black angels come to judge the dead. They 
have blue eyes, and carry an iron club. If the 
answers given to their questions are satis- 
factory, the grave expands, and the dead person 
is told to sleep on until the resurrection. But 
if the answers are doubtful or wrong, the angels 
proceed to pound with a club, and the dead 
person roars out. All Moslems believe these 
foolish teachings, and they say that animals are 
often frightened away from the tombs by the 
cries of the wicked dead. 

"Without Christ, without hope." Nowhere 
is this clearer than when you stand in a Mos- 
lem graveyard, and how many millions of these 
Christless graves dot the landscape in many 
lands ! Around Mecca there are acres upon 
acres of the dead. The graveyards in Arabia 
are generally very untidy ; one never sees 



ISLAM 31 

plants or trees or flowers in them. Only the Graves 
rich have gravestones ; a Bedouin grave is on 
the open desert, and his last resting-place is 
marked by a camel's rib or a date-stick stuck 
up in the dry sand. And every Thursday even- 
ing many of these graveyards of the Moslem 
world present a picture of Moslem womanhood 
come to mourn their dead : — 

" Sorrowful women's faces, hungry yearning 
Wild with despair, or dark with sin and dread ; 
Worn with long weeping for the unre turning 
Hopeless, uncomforted. 

" ' Give us,' they cry, < your cup of consolation 
Never to our outstretching hand is passed. 
We long for the Desire of every nation, 
And oh, we die so fast/ " 

Author's Note. — A few of the paragraphs in this chap- 
ter were adopted from my summary of Mohammedanism 
in " Religions of Mission Fields" (Chapter IX). Student 
Volunteer Movement, 1905. 

HELPS FOR LEADERS 
Lesson Aim : 

To give a bird's-eye view of the Mohammedan world 
and show the strength and the weakness of Islam in faith 
and practice. 
Scripture Lesson : 

Dan. 8 : 9-26 ; Matt. 24 : 11 ; Matt. 6 : 5-9. 
Suggestive Questions : 

1. Why did Islam not enter Japan ? 

2. What religions did Islam meet in its early con- 
quests V 

3. Give a picture of Arabian home life in the Middle 
Ages ("The Arabian Nights"). 

4. How do the requirements of prayer and fasting 
prove that Islam cannot be a universal religion ? 



32 MOSLEM LANDS 

5. Describe Mohammedan art and architecture in 
Spain and in India. 

6. The route, purpose, and probable effect of the pro- 
posed railway to Mecca. 

7. Was Islam a blessing to pagan Africa ? 

8. How are faith and works related in the Moslem 
system ? 

9. Which articles of the Apostle's Creed would be ac- 
cepted by a Moslem ? 

10. In praying for the Mohammedan World, what 
special petitions does this chapter suggest ? 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The standard Encyclopaedias, art. Mohammed and Mo- 
hammedanism. Also, " Arabia, the Cradle of Islam," 
for a bibliography on the subject. 

The Koran. Translations by Sale, Rodwell, or Palmer. 

" The Mohammedan World of To-day." Fleming H. 
KevellCo. New York, 1906. 

W. St. Clair Tisdall, " The Sources of the Quran," 
S. P. C. K. London, 1905. 

H. H. Jessup, " The Mohammedan Missionary Prob- 
lem." Philadelphia, 1879. 

Hughes, "Dictionary of Islam." London, 1885. 

S. M. Zwemer, " The Moslem Doctrine of God." Ameri- 
can Tract Society, 1905. 

S. M. Zwemer, "Islam: A Challenge to Faith." Stu- 
dent Volunteer Movement, 1907. 

ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS 

The Sword of Islam. — " This contempt for the lives of 
the rebellious or vanquished was exemplified over and 
over in the history of Islam in India. The slave Emperor 
Balban once slew forty thousand Mongols, whom he sus- 
pected of disloyalty, notwithstanding that they professed 
the Moslem religion. Timur (Tamerlane) felt encum- 
bered by one hundred thousand Hindu prisoners, taken 
at the capture of Delhi. He ordered them to be slain in 



ISLAM 33 

cold blood. The Bahmanid Mohammed I, son of Hassan 
Gangu, once avenged the death of his Moslem garrison at 
Mudkall, by the slaughter of seventy thousand men, 
women, and children. Such were the deeds of the prose- 
lyting sword, which was unsheathed against the unbe- 
lieving world by the mandate of the Prophet." 

— Wherry's " Islam and Christianity," p. 49. 

Moslem Pride. — " Personal pride, which like blood in 
the body, runs through all the veins of the mind of Mo- 
hammedanism, which sets the soul of a Sultan in the 
twisted frame of a beggar at a street corner, is not cast off 
in the act of admiration. These Arabs humbled them- 
selves in the body. Their foreheads touched the stones. 
By their attitudes they seemed as if they wished to make 
themselves even with the ground, to shrink into the 
space occupied by a grain of sand. Yet they were proud 
in the presence of Allah, as if the firmness of their belief 
in him a^d his right dealing, the fury of their contempt 
and hatred for those who looked not toward Mecca 
nor regarded Ramadan, gave them a patent of nobility. 
Despite their genuflections, they were all as men who 
knew, and never forgot, that on them was conferred the 
right to keep on their head-covering in the presence of 
their King. With unclosed eyes they looked God full in 
the face. Their dull and growling murmur had the 
majesty of thunder rolling through the sky." 

— "The Garden of Allah," p. 153. 

The Call to Prayer, heard from minarets five times 
daily in all Moslem lands, is as follows. The Muezzin 
cries it in a loud voice, and always in the Arabic lan- 
guage : " God is most great ! God is most great ! God 
is most great ! God is most great ! I testify that there 
is no god but God ! I testify that there is no god but 
God ! I testify that Mohammed is the Apostle of God ! 
Come to prayer ! Come to prayer ! Come to prosperity ! 
Come to prosperity ! God is most great ! God is most 
great ! There is no god but God." In the call to early 
morning prayer, the words, " Prayer is better than sleep," 
are added twice after the call to prosperity. (For further 



34 MOSLEM LANDS 

details of the prayer-ritual, see Klein's " The Religion of 
Islam," pp. 120-156.) 

The Five Pillars of Practice. — " The five pillars of the 
Mohammedan faith are all broken reeds by the solemn 
test of age-long experience ; because their creed is only a 
half truth, and its 'pure monotheism' does not satisfy 
the soul's need of a mediator, and an atonement for sin. 
Their prayers are formal and vain repetitions, without de- 
manding or producing holiness in the one that uses them. 
Their fasting is productive of two distinct evils wherever 
observed: it manufactures an unlimited number of hypo- 
crites who profess to keep the fast and do not do so, and 
in the second place the reaction which occurs at sunset 
of every night of Ramadan tends to produce revelling 
and dissipation of the lowest and most degrading type. 
Their almsgiving stimulates indolence, and has produced 
that acme of social parasites — the dervish or fakir. 
Finally, their pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina and Ker- 
bela are a public scandal even to Moslem morality, so 
that the holy cities are hotbeds of vice and plague-spots 
in the body politic." 

— Missionary Review of the World, October, 1898. 

The Moslem Paradise. — According to Al-Ghazali 
(4 : 337) Mohammed said, " The believer in Paradise will 
marry five hundred houris, four thousand virgins, and 
eight thousand divorced women." Al-Ghazali (A.H. 450) 
is one of the greatest theologians of Islam, and no ortho- 
dox Moslem would dispute his statement. In this very 
connection Ghazali quotes the words, " things which the 
eye saw not, and which did not enter into the heart of 
man ! " — Ghazali 4 : 338. 



" When travelling in Asia it struck me how very little 
we had heard, how little we know as to how sin is en- 
throned and deified and worshipped. There is sin and 
shame everywhere. Mohammedanism is corrupt to the 
very core. The morals of Mohammedan countries are cor- 
rupt and the imagination very wicked. . . . These false 
faiths degrade women with an infinite degradation. The 
intellect is dwarfed, while all the worst passions of hu- 
man nature are stimulated and developed in a fearful 
degree ; jealousy, envy, murderous hate, intrigue running 
to such an extent that in some countries I have hardly 
ever been in a woman's house, or near a woman's tent 
without being asked for drugs with which to disfigure 
the favorite w r ife, to take away her life, or to take away 
the life of the favorite wife's infant son. This request 
has been made to me nearly two hundred times. . . . 
It follows necessarily that there is also an infinite degra- 
dation of men. The whole continent of Asia is corrupt. 
It is the scene of barbarities, tortures, brutal punish- 
ments, oppression, official corruption (which is the worst 
under Mohammedan rule) ; of all things which are the 
natural products of systems without God in Christ. 
There are no sanctities of home ; nothing to tell of 
righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, only 
a fearful looking for in the future of fiery indignation 
from some quarter, they know not what." 

— Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop. 



36 



CHAPTER II 

THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 

Why Missions to Moslems? — Two views have Why 
been widely prevalent and held for a long Missions? 
time regarding missions to Mohammedans. 
Although diametrically opposed, they agree that 
it is waste of time and effort to carry the 
Gospel to Moslems. The one view is that the 
work is impossible ; the other that it is un- 
necessary. The one holds that Islam is too 
hopeless to be meddled with ; the other that 
Islam is so hopeful that it does not need 
our help, but will work out its own salvation. 
The one considers the Moslem so utterly un- 
approachable that it is useless to go to him ; 
the other says it is needless to go because 
the Moslem himself is approaching to Christ 
through Mohammed. The former view treats 
Islam, as the foe of Christianity, with the 
hatred of neglect ; the latter, considering " Is- 
lam the handmaid of Christianity," welcomes 
her cooperation for the redemption of Africa 
from the evils of paganism, an opinion voiced 
by Canon Taylor, Doctor Blyden, and others. 1 

1 Blyden, "Christianity, Islam and the .Negro Race," 
London, 1888. Ameer Ali, "The Spirit of Islam," Cal- 
cutta, 1902. 

37 



38 MOSLEM LANDS 

This chapter is intended to prove that the 
latter view is surely at fault and that Moslem 
lands and Moslem peoples sorely need the Gos- 
pel. The next chapter will show that the 
Gospel is not impotent over against Islam, but 
victorious wherever it has entered. 
Testimony Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, who travelled with 

of Mrs. opened eyes through many Moslem lands, wrote 

from Kirmanshah, Persia : " I have learned 
two things ; one I have been learning for 
nine months past, — the utter error of Canon 
Taylor's estimate of Islam. I think it has the 
most blighting, withering, degrading influence 
of any of the false creeds." 1 And when she 
visited Morocco there was no doubt in her 
mind about Islam being " a handmaid of Chris- 
tianity." "It is at once the curse of Morocco, 
and the most formidable obstacle in the way 
of progress, chaining all thought in the fetters 
of the seventh century, steeping its votaries in 
the most intolerant bigotry and the narrowest 
conceit, and encouraging fanaticism which re- 
gards with approval the delirious excesses of 
the Aissawa and the Hamdusha." 2 

The present social and moral condition of 
Mohammedan lands and of Moslems as a class 
in all lands is not such as it is in spite of, but 
because of, their religion. The evils are in- 
herent in it. The law of cause and effect 
has operated for over a thousand years under 
every possible physical and ethnic environ- 

1 " Life of Isabella Bird Bishop," p. 221. 

2 Ibid., p. 365. 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 39 

ment, among Semites, Aryan races, Negroes, 
and Slavs. The results are so sadly similar 
that they form a terrible and unanswerable 
indictment of the social and moral weakness Morals 
of Islam. " By their fruits ye shall know 
them," and the fruit always depends upon the 
root. 

Low Ideals of Conduct and Character. — The The ideal of 
measure of the moral stature of Mohammed is Character 
the root and foundation of all moral ideals in 
Islam. His conduct is the standard of charac- 
ter. We need not be surprised, therefore, that 
the ethical standard is so low. Raymund Lull, 
the first missionary to Moslems, used to show 
in his bold preaching that Mohammed had none 
of the seven cardinal virtues, and was guilty of 
the seven deadly sins. He may have gone too 
far. But it would not be difficult to show that 
pride, lust, envy, and anger were prominent 
traits in the prophet's character. 

To read the story of Mohammed's life as 
given by Muir, Sprenger, or Weil is convincing 
enough. 

The three fundamental concepts of Christian Ethics 
ethics are all of them challenged by the teach- 
ing of Islam. The Mohammedan idea of the 
Highest Good, of Virtue, and of the Moral 
Law are not in accord with those of Chris- 
tianity. " The highest good is the very out- 
wardly and very sensuously conceived happiness 
of the individual." Ideal virtue is to be found 
through imitation of Mohammed. And the 
moral law is practically abrogated because of 



40 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Ceremonial 
Law 



Untruthful- 
ness 



loose views as to its real character and teach- 
ing and finality. 

There is no distinction between the cere- 
monial and the moral law even implied in the 
Koran. It is as great an offence to pray with 
unwashen hands as to tell a lie, and " pious " 
Moslems who nightly break the seventh com- 
mandment (according to their own lax inter- 
pretation of it) will shrink from a tin of 
foreign meat for fear they be defiled by eating 
swine's flesh. The lack of all distinction be- 
tween the ceremonial and the moral law is very 
evident in many traditional sayings of Moham- 
med, which are of course at the basis of ethics. 
Take one example : " The Prophet, upon whom 
be prayers and peace, said ; One dirhem of 
usury which a man takes, knowing it to be so, 
is more grievous than thirty-six fornications, 
and whosoever has done so is worthy of hell- 
fire." 5 

Dr. Dennis sums up the real character of 
Moslem ethics as an "adoption of religious 
ideas and social customs which are saturated 
with error, loathsome with immorality and 
injustice, antagonistic to both natural and re- 
vealed ethics and stale with the provincialism 
of the desert." In enumerating the social evils 
which are the dead-rot of Moslem society, we 
begin with that which saps the very roots of 
character, — untruthfulness. 

Untruthfulness. — One of the ninety-nine names 
of God in the Koran is that of El Hak, The 
Truth, but of the absolute inviolability of truth 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 41 

in the Deity or in ethics the Moslem mind has 
no conception. To begin with, there is the 
teaching of orthodox Islam that nothing is 
right or wrong by nature, but becomes such 
by the fiat of the Almighty. 

What Allah or His Prophet forbids is sin, even 
should He forbid what seems right to the con- 
science. What Allah allows is not sin and can- 
not be sin at the time He allows it, though it may 
have been before or after. One has only to 
argue the matter of polygamy with an intelli- 
gent Moslem to have the above confirmed. 

According to Moslem tradition, there are two 
authenticated sayings of Mohammed on the 
subject of lying : " When a servant of God 
tells a lie, his guardian angels move away to 
the distance of a mile, because of the badness of 
its smell." That seems a characteristic denun- 
ciation, but the other saying contradicts it : 
" Verily a lie is allowable in three cases, — to When a Lie 
women, to reconcile friends, and in war " (El 1S Allowable 
Hidayah, Vol. IV, p. 81). And the great theo- 
logian of Islam, Abu Hanifa, alleges that if a 
man should swear " by the truth of God," this 
does not constitute an oath ! while the whole 
subject of oaths and vows in Moslem theology 
exhibits the crookedness of their moral legerde- 
main in dealing with truth. 

" The dastardly assassination," says Muir, " of 
his political and religious opponents, counte- 
nanced and frequently directed as it was in all 
its cruel and perfidious details by Mohammed 
himself, leaves a dark and indelible blot upon 



42 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Living- 
stone's 
Testimony. 



his character." With such a Prophet it is no 
wonder that among his followers and imitators 
" truth-telling is one of the lost arts," and that 
perjury is too common to be noticed. Since 
Mohammed gathered ideas and stories from the 
Jews of Medina and palmed them off as a new 
revelation from God, it is no wonder that 
Arabian literature teems with all sorts of pla- 
giarisms, or that one of the early authorities of 
Islam laid down the canon that it is justifiable 
to lie in praise of the Prophet. Dr. St. Clair 
Tisdall says in regard to the Mohammedans of 
Persia, " Lying has been elevated to the dignity 
of a fine art owing to the doctrine of Kitman- 
ud-din which is held by the Shiah religious 
community." 1 

This doctrine, held by nearly ten million 
Moslems of the Shiah sect, only adds one more 
loophole for lies to those Mohammed made, and 
permits a lie "to conceal one's true religion." 

What the standard of truth is among the 
Moslems of the Dark Continent, we know from 
the testimony of David Livingstone : — 

" The men sent by Dr. Kirk are Mohammedans, that 
is, unmitigated liars. Musa and his companions are fair 
specimens of the lower class of Moslems. The two head- 
men remained at Ujiji, to feast on my goods, and get pay 
without work. Seven came to Bambarra, and in true 
Moslem style swore that they were sent by Dr. Kirk to 
bring me back, not to go with me, if the country were bad 
or dangerous. Forward they would not go. I read Dr. 
Kirk's words to them to follow wheresoever I led. ' No, 
by the old liar Mohammed, they were to force me back to 

1 " The Mohammedan World of To-day," p. 117. 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 43 

Zanzibar/ After a superabundance of falsehood, it turned 
out that it all meant only an advance of pay, though they 
had double the Zanzibar wages. I gave it, but had to 
threaten on the word of an Englishman to shoot the ring- 
leaders before I got them to go. They all speak of Eng- 
lish as men who do not lie. ... I have travelled more than 
most people, and with all sorts of followers. The Chris- 
tians of Kuruman and Kolobeng were out of sight the 
best I ever had. The Makololo, who were very partially 
Christianized, were next best — honest, truthful, and 
brave. Heathen Africans are much superior to the 
Mohammedans, who are the most worthless one can 
have." x 

What was true of the Moslems Livingstone 
met, seems to be the case almost universally in 
Moslem lands. In Syria, we are told, it was Syria 
rare to find a Moslem who could be believed 
under oath, and perjury is too common to be 
noticed. 2 To be called a liar in the Levant is 
considered a very mild insult. Lord Curzon, 
in his authoritative book on Persia, remarks, " I 
am convinced that the true son of Iran would 
sooner lie than tell the truth, and that he 
feels twinges of desperate remorse when upon 
occasions he has thoughtlessly strayed into 
veracity." 

In Turkey and Egypt the whole routine of 
daily life is filled with dishonesty and double- 
dealing ; while among the Arabs, oaths are 
divided into two classes : those which one may 
use in asserting a lie without fear of perjury, 
and those which are sacred to affirm the truth. 

1 Quoted from his journals in " Christus Liberator," p. 60. 

2 H. H. Jessup, " The Mohammedan Missionary Prob- 
lem," p. 50. 



44 



MOSLEM LANDS 



immorality Immorality. — On this topic it is not possible 
to speak plainly nor to be wholly silent. One 
must live among Moslems to see the blasting 
and corrupting influence of an immoral religion 
on its followers. " He that soweth to the flesh 
shall of the flesh reap corruption." 

Moslems have changed the truth of God in 
their consciences for a lie, and for this cause 
they are given up to vile affections from the 
day their Prophet married Zainab until now. 
Many of the masses are past feeling, and " have 
given themselves over unto lasciviousness to 
work all uncleanness with greediness." In 
consequence, the majority seem to have " con- 
sciences seared with a hot iron " and minds too 
full of the sensual to admit of a spiritual con- 
ception. There is no mental soporific like the 
Koran, and there is nothing so well designed 
to hush all heart-questioning as a religion that 
denies the need of an atonement. There is no 
spiritual aspiration even for the Moslem, who 
longs for heaven, because even there he can 
only picture the "houris" of paradise and the 
goblets of wine and rivers of milk. " To be 
carnally-minded is death." Islam proves it by 
the effect of its teaching on the lives of Mos- 
lems. 

Literature The sensuality of Islam is as deeply carved in 

the Mohammedan literature as the immorality 
of Hinduism is carved on their idol-temples. 
Both are too deeply cut into the symbols of 
their religion to be removed without destroy- 
ing it. The Koran, the commentaries, the 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 45 

traditions, Moslem theology, and the entire 
range of Arabic literature, as written by and 
for Moslems, contain passages and whole sec- 
tions that are untranslatable. 

And this kind of fireside literature breeds 
a coarse vocabulary and corrupt conversation 
among men, women, and children, to a degree 
that is incredible. The very strongholds of 
religion are strongholds of immorality in the 
Moslem world. Mecca, Kerbela, and Meshed 
Ali are examples of " holy cities " without Holy Cities 
morality. " The Meccans," writes Burton 
(the man who did not shrink from the unex- 
purgated "Arabian Nights"), "appeared to me 
distinguished even in this foul-mouthed East 
by the superior licentiousness of their lan- 
guage." 1 

One who has been a missionary for years 
in India testified: "However the phenomenon 
may be accounted for, we, after mixing with 
Hindus and Mohammedans for nineteen years, 
have no hesitation in saying that the latter are, 
as a whole, some degrees lower in the social and 
moral scale than the former." 2 

Polygamy has not diminished licentiousness Polygamy 
in any Moslem land, but everywhere increased 
it. " Immorality among African Mohamme- 
dans is commonly indescribable. It is worse 
among the Arabs of the intensely Mohammedan 

!Cf. "The Mohammedan World of To-day," pp. 117, 
139-141. 

2 The Rev. J. Vaughan in Dr. Jessup's "Mohammedan 
Missionary Problem," p. 47. 



46 MOSLEM LANDS 

countries to the north than it is among the 
Negro races to the south." 2 

The Seclusion and Degradation of Women. — 
The origin of the veil in Islam and the conse- 
quent seclusion of women was one of the 
marriage affairs of Mohammed himself with 
its appropriate revelation from Allah. In the 
twenty-fourth Surah of the Koran women are 
The Veil forbidden to appear unveiled before any member 
of the other sex with the exception of near 
relatives. And so by one verse the bright, 
refining, elevating influence of womanhood was 
forever withdrawn from Moslem society. 

The evils of the harem, the seraglio, the 
purdah, or the zenana, by whatever name it is 
called, are writ large over all the social life of 
the Moslem world. And Moslems enlightened 
by the torch of Christian civilization are them- 
selves beginning to see the fact. At a Moham- 
medan conference held in Bombay, in 1904, Mr. 
Justice Telang spoke of the evils of the purdah 
system, and named it as the chief cause for the 
backwardness of the Moslem community. 

After showing that the religious aspect of 
the question was a delicate one for Moslems to 
discuss, he remarked: — 

"As to the social aspect of the question, we have been 
so accustomed to it from our infancy, we have seen it 
prevail more or less amongst all the Mussulman coun- 
tries of the world, and, therefore, we are naturally 
prejudiced in its favour, and strongly prejudiced against 
any modification of its rigour. Being so prejudiced, we 

1 " The Mohammedan World of To-day," p. 284. 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 47 

magnify and exaggerate whatever advantages or benefits 
there may be in it, and we strongly close onr eyes to the 
advantages of its abolition. 

" Whether purdah is good or bad from a social point Moslem 
of view, whether it is or is not entirely in accordance with Testimony 
the religious doctrines as interpreted by some people, may 
be a question, but there can be none, I think, as to the 
effect of the purdah system on the health and physique 
of our women. Gentlemen, if there is one thing more 
clear than another in science it is that the human consti- 
tution requires pure air and healthy exercise. How are 
these possible if the present system of purdah is main- 
tained ? How and where are our women to get pure air? 
How and where are they to get healthy exercise ? And 
consider the fact of the absence of pure air and the absence 
of exercise on the constitutions of our women. Compare 
their constitutions with the constitutions of the women of 
other communities who, untrammelled by the purdah, go 
into the open and move freely and give exercise to the 
various parts of their body. Compare the health of 
our women with the health of the women of other 
classes. 

" Look at the statistics, consider the vast proportion of 
our women who die from consumption due to confinement 
in the house, impure air, and want of exercise. Gentle- 
men, we cannot ever hope to have healthy, strong, and 
vigorous women among us so long as we confine them in 
the way we have done for years and years ; and we can- 
not hope to have strong, healthy, and vigorous children 
so long as our women are weak and unhealthy and of 
delicate constitutions." 

And the learned barrister would have 
strengthened his argument, had he spoken of 
the effect of this loss of God's sunlight and 
God-given liberty on the moral health of Mos- 
lem women, and of the impure air that is the 
only breath for their souls in the Moslem 
zenana. 



48 MOSLEM LANDS 

Position of As regards the position of women in Islam 
Women to-day, a perusal of the unimpeachable evidence 
found in the recent symposium, " Our Moslem 
Sisters," will make the most callous-hearted 
hear a cry of distress from these lands of dark- 
ness that appeals for help. In nearly every 
Moslem land woman is held to be " a scandal 
and a slave, a drudge and a disgrace, a temp- 
tation and a terror, a blemish and a burden." 
And this is shown " by the estimate put upon 
her, by the opportunity given her, by the func- 
tion assigned her, by the privilege accorded her 
and by the service expected of her." 1 

We need not go for testimony outside of the 
Koran and the Moslem theology. Al-Ghazali 
sums up the question of women's rights in 
Islam when he says, " Marriage is a kind of 
slavery, for the wife becomes the slave of her 
husband, and it is her duty absolutely to obey 
him in everything he requires of her except in 
what is contrary to the laws of Islam." Wife- 
beating is allowed by the Koran, and even the 
method and limitations are explained by the 
law of ethics. 2 

Polygamy and Divorce. — A Moslem who 
lives up to his privileges and who follows the 
example of " the saints " in his calendar can 
have four wives and any number of slave-con- 
cubines; can divorce at his pleasure; hecanre- 

1 Dennis, " Christian Missions and Social Progress,'' 
Yol. I, p. 104. 

2 See Klein, " The Religion of Islam," p. 190, and Mos- 
lem Commentaries on Surah 4 : 38. 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 49 

marry his divorced wives by a special abominable 
arrangement ; and in addition to all this, if he 
belong to the heterodox Shiah sect, he can con- 
tract marriages for pleasure (Metaa) which are 
temporary. 1 

" The very chapter in the Mohammedan Bible 
which deals with the legal status of woman, 
and which provides that every Mohammedan 
may have four legal wives, and as many con- 
cubines or slave girls as his right hand can 
hold," says Robert E. Speer, "goes by the title 
in the Koran itself of 'The Cow.' One could Degradation 
get no better title to describe the status of 
woman throughout the non-Christian world." 

This trampling the honor of womanhood is 
only one of the evil results. A system that 
puts God's sanction on polygamy, concubinage, 
and unlimited divorce, — that hellish trinity, 
brings a curse on every home in the Moham- 
medan world by degrading manhood. But, 
alas, these social and domestic evils cannot be 

1 " As to the degradation of women, one does not know 
where to begin. You have heard a little about it : but the 
most horrible thing I have ever known is the system of tem- 
porary marriages practised in the valley of the Tarim, espe- 
cially in Kashgar. The Russian Consul told me that during 
the five years he had lived there, he had known many girls 
to have twenty husbands before they were twelve years old! 
Temporary marriages are sanctioned for a week. I am not 
sure whether they are not for a day, and it is common for 
men there to change their wives five or six times a year ; 
and that, be it observed, is in a place where Mohammedan- 
ism has had full sway for a great many years, and where, if 
the system were good, it ought certainly by this time to have 
shown itself." — Dr. Henry Landsell, M.R.A.S. 
e 



50 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Moham- 
med's 
Example 



rebuked or deplored by better-class Moham- 
medans without reflecting on the career of 
Mohammed and without contradicting the re- 
vealed word of God and the consensus of the 
theologians of Islam. 

The Prophet in this respect, also, was to 
Moslems the paragon of perfection. Although 
when Khadijah died he found his own lax law 
insufficient to restrain his lusts, and indulged 
in at least ten additional marriages, it is not 
put down as a disgrace, but as a dignity in 
the biographies of God's Apostle. No wonder 
that some of his followers have aspired to a 
like privilege. Among the Nomad chiefs of 
Arabia polygamy is the invariable rule. One 
Sheikh in North Arabia has more than forty 
wives and concubines and does not know many 
of his own children. 

In Baluchistan concubinage is so common 
that a missionary says he knows " several 
chiefs who have thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty 
women." Still darker shadows fall on the 
picture of the life of our Moslem sisters in that 
part of the world, if we open the government 
of India census report: — 

" Owing to the system of buying wives, in vogue among 
Afghans, a girl as soon as she reaches nubile age is, for 
all practical purposes, put up for auction and sold to the 
highest bidder. Her father discourses in the market on 
her beauty or ability as a housekeeper, and invites offers 
from those who desire a wife. Even the more wealthy 
and more respectable Afghans are not above thus laud- 
ing the female, wares which they have for sale. Even 
the betrothal of girls who are not yet born is frequent. 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 51 

It is also usual for compensation for blood to be ordered 
tj be paid in the shape of girls, some of whom are living, 
whilst others are yet unborn." 

And again: — 

u Among Afghans and their neighbors, polygamy is Afghanistan 
Ot.Iy limited by the purchasing ability of the man, and 
a wife is looked on as a better investment than cattle ; 
for in a country where drought and scarcity are continu- 
ally present, the risk of loss in animals is great, whilst 
the female offspring of a woman will fetch a high price. 
Woman's tutelage does not end with widowhood. In the 
household of a deceased Afghan she is looked on as an 
asset in the division of his property. It is no uncommon 
thing to find a son willing to sell his own m other." 

Where woman is thus regarded as a mere 
chattel, it is no wonder that every marriage 
bond is easily broken, and that where, by 
reason of poverty, polygamy is impossible, 
c uiriee or lust is satisfied by frequent divorce. 
The facility, the legality, and the universality of 
dr-orce in the Moslem world is without a parallel 
u.i tj/* any other religion. 

'ij law of divorce is based on express in- Divorce 
i n u*i ions contained in the Koran, and the 
- ibj-jct is deemed of such importance that it 
Connies one of the largest sections in works on 
■ iiLsprudence. A husband may divorce his 
' . ' j f :;• any cause whatsoever, at any time and 
.cv-j any misbehavior on her part. Burk- 
• \'j tells of an Arab, forty-five years old, who 
had had fifty wives, and history tells of early 
Moslem leaders who far exceeded him in con- 
jugal unfaithfulness. In Egypt, ninety-five per 
cent of all Moslem marriages are followed by 



52 MOSLEM LANDS 

divorce. In West Africa, polygamy is the rule 
among all Moslems, and only limited by lack of 
wealth, while divorce is so frequent that " it is 
rare to find a woman, past the prime of life, 
living with her husband." 1 

It is heart-rending to hear some of the cries 
of suffering that ring out to heaven from the 
lands of perpetual divorce. A lady missionary 
Algiers in Algiers tells of the cruel treatment of three 

cases, one of whom, a mere girl, was already 
twice divorced from drunken, dissolute hus- 
bands, and continues : — 

" Yet they have gone under without tasting the bit- 
terest dregs of a native woman's cup ; for (save a baby 
of the eldest girl's who lived only a few weeks) there 
were no children in the question. And the woman's 
deepest anguish begins where they are concerned. For 
divorce is always hanging over her head. The birth of 
a daughter when a son had been hoped for, an illness 
that has become a bit tedious, a bit of caprice or counter- 
attraction on the husband's part — any of these things 
may mean that he will " tear the paper " that binds them 
together, and for eight francs the kadi will set him free. 
This means that the children will be forced from the 
mother and knocked about by the next wife that comes 
on the scene ; and the mother-heart will suffer a constant 
martyrdom from her husband if only divorce can be 
averted." 

Slavery Slavery. — This might as well have been the 

heading of the previous paragraph. But in 
Moslem law a separate section is given to the 
traffic in human flesh, although the lot of Negro 
slaves in the Mohammedan world has never 
been much worse than the daily slavery of 
i "The Mohammedan World of To-day," p. 49. 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 53 

women (with its Damocles sword of divorce 
hanging over every bridal couch) and is often 
better. 

Mohammed found slavery an existing institu- 
tion both among the Jews and the idolaters of 
Arabia, recognized it, and by legislating for its 
continuance, perpetuated it. The teaching of 
the Koran is very explicit. (See the follow- 
ing Surahs: 4: 3,29; 33:49; 23:5; 16: 77; 
24 : 33.) All male and female slaves taken as 
plunder in war are the lawful property of their 
master ; the master has power to purchase any 
number of female slaves, either married or 
single ; the position of a slave is compared to 
the helplessness of the stone idols of pagan 
Arabia ; yet slaves must be treated with kind- 
ness and be granted their freedom when they 
are able to purchase it. 

The slave traffic is not only allowed, but Slave 
legislated for by Mohammedan law and made Traffic 
sacred by the example of the Prophet (Mish- 
kat, Book 13, Chapter XX). In Moslem books 
of law the same rules apply to the sale of animals 
and slaves. There is absolutely no limit to 
the number of slave girls with whom a Mos- 
lem may cohabit, and it is this consecration 
of carnal indulgence which so popularizes the 
Mohammedan religion among uncivilized tribes 
and so popularizes slavery in the Moslem state. 

Some Moslem apologists of the present day 
contend that Mohammed looked upon the cus- 
tom as temporary in its nature ; but slavery is 
so interwoven with the laws of marriage, of 



54 MOSLEM LANDS 

sale, of inheritance, and with the whole social 
fabric, that its abolition strikes at the foun- 
dations of their legal code. Whenever and 
wherever Moslem rulers have agreed to the 
abolition or suppression of the slave trade, they 
have acted contrary to the privileges of their 
religion in consenting to obey the laws of 
humanity. 

Arabia, the Holy Land of Islam, is still a 
centre of the slave trade. It is also prevalent 
in Morocco, although decreasing in Tripoli and 
Zanzibar. Where Moslems live under Chris- 
tian rule, the traffic in slaves has been pro- 
hibited, but in no case has this been due to a 
reformation in Islam itself. 
The Mecca Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje describes the public 
Slave Mar- s i ave market at Mecca in full swing every day 
during his visit in 1879. It is located near 
Bab Derebah and the holy mosque, and open to 
everybody. Although he himself apologizes for 
the traffic, and calls the anti-slavery crusade 
a swindle, he yet confesses to all the horrible 
details in the sale of female slaves and the 
mutilation of male slaves for the markets. 
And we know that conditions have not changed 
for the better to this day. 

A book recently published describes the pil- 
grim journey of Hadji Khan to Mecca in 1902, 
and in the Appendix is a plea to stop the cruel 
trade in slaves. 

" Go there," says the writer, " and see for yourself the 
condition of the human chattels for purchase. You will 
find them, thanks to the vigilance of British cruisers, 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 55 

less numerous, and consequently more expensive, than 
they were in former years ; but there they are, flung 
pell-mell in the open square. . . . The dealer standing 
by, cried out : ' Come and buy, the first fruits of the 
season, delicate, fresh and green ; come and buy, strong 
and useful, faithful and honest. Come and buy." 

" The day of sacrifice was past, and the richer pilgrims 
in their brightest robes gathered around. One among 
them singled out the girl. They entered a booth to- 
gether. The mother was left behind. One word she 
uttered, or was it a moan of inarticulate grief ? Soon 
after, the girl came back. And the dealer, when the 
bargain was over, said to the purchaser : < I sell you this 
property of mine, the female slave, Narcissus, for the 
sum of £40.' Thus the bargain was clinched. . . . Men 
slaves could be bought for sums varying from £15 to £40. 
The children in arms were sold with their mothers, an 
act of mercy ; but those that could feed themselves had 
to take their chance. More often than not, they were 
separated from their mothers, which gave rise to scenes 
which many a sympathetic pilgrim would willingly forget 
if he could." x 

Cruelty and Intolerance. — Islam is a hard intolerance 
religion toward those that do not embrace it — 
the " infidel " must be brought low ; and a 
heartless religion toward all who abandon it — 
the apostate must be put to death. There is 
neither precept nor example enjoining love to 
one's enemies. Islam knows nothing of a uni- 
versal benevolence or of a humane tolerance, 
nor did Mohammed. 

The Koran does not reveal a God of love. No Goa 
Allah is too rich, too proud, and too indepen- of Love 

1 " With the Pilgrims to Mecca, The Great Pilgrimage of 
A.H. 1319, a.d. 1902," by Hadji Khan. John Lane, London 
and New York, 1905. 



56 



MOSLEM LANDS 



The Sword 
of Islam 



El Azhar 



dent to need or desire the tribute of human 
love. In consequence, the loveless creed pro- 
duces loveless character. That the element of 
love was lacking in Mohammed's idea of God 
is perhaps the reason also why the Koran, in 
contrast with the Bible, has so little for and 
about children. Of such is not the kingdom 
of Mohammed. His was a kingdom of the 
sword and for warriors w T ho could spill blood. 
And the lessons learned during the long wars 
of conquest and the bitter strife of Moslem sect 
with sect have never been forgotten. 

The Armenian massacres, the condition of 
Turkish prisons, the barbarities of Morocco, 
the cruelties of the African slave-trade, the 
excruciating tortures practised on criminals in 
Persia, and the methods of self-torture used by 
the Dervish orders, — all these are topics that 
would require volumes to include all the evi- 
dence of their horror. Yet all these things 
are connected directly or indirectly with the 
Moslem religion and would cease in these lands, 
if it did. 

In the great Mohammedan University of El 
Azhar at Cairo with its thousands of stu- 
dents from every part of the world, we might 
expect some little breadth of sympathy and 
some breath of tolerance. But there is neither. 
This missionary prayer was offered there, for 
many years past, every evening : — 

" I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the accursed ! 
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful ! 
O Lord of all creatures, O Allah ! destroy the infidels 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 57 

and polytheists, thine enemies, the enemies of the re- 
ligion ! Allah ! make their children orphans and de- 
file their abodes ! Cause their feet to slip ; give them 
and their families, their households and their women, A Prayer 
their children and their relations by marriage, their 
brothers and their friends, their possessions and their 
race, their wealth and their lands, as booty to the Mos- 
lems, O Lord of all creatures ! " 

And where could we find stronger and more 
recent instances of Moslem intolerance than in 
the reports of many missionary societies labor- 
ing in Moslem lands ; unless we care to listen 
to Sheikh Abd ul Hak, of Bagdad, and his 
" Final Word of Islam to Europe"? 1 

Ignorance and Illiteracy. — It is a disputed ignorance 
question whether Mohammed could read and 
write. Moslems themselves are not agreed, and 
Western scholarship is still undecided as to 
the evidence, 2 although Mohammedans gener- 
ally speak of their Prophet as the " Illiterate." 
But there can be no dispute in this respect 
about the followers of the Prophet. The illit- 
eracy of the Mohammedan world to-day is as 
surprising as it is appalling. One would think 
that a religion which almost worships its sacred 
Book, and which once was mistress of science 
and literature, would, in its onward sweep, have 
enlightened the nations. But facts are stub- illiteracy 
born things. Careful investigations show that 
seventy-five to one hundred per cent of the 
Moslems in Africa are unable to read or write. 

1 See end of this chapter. 

2 See the list of writers pro and con in u The Moslem 
Doctrine of God," p. 92. 



58 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Illiteracy 
in India 



Paucity 
of Books 



In Tripoli ninety per cent are illiterate -, 
in Egypt eighty-eight per cent ; in Algiers 
over ninety per cent. In Turkey there has 
been improvement in recent years, yet even 
now it is forty per cent of the population. 
Persia now has a constitution, but it has no 
public-school system, and ninety per cent of 
the people can neither read nor write. In 
Baluchistan, according to the British census, 
only 117 per thousand of the Mohammedan 
men, and only 23 per thousand among the 
women, can read. 

But the most surprising facts are in re- 
gard to India, where the Mohammedans are 
still put down in the census as a " backward 
class." After over a century of British rule 
and Christian missions and religious agitation, 
over ninety-six per cent of the Mohammedans 
in India are illiterate ! The figures given are 
59,674,499 unable to read or write among a 
Mohammedan population of 62,458,077 ! It is 
almost incredible. 

And this widespread illiteracy is sometimes 
due to a paucity of literature of a character 
suited for the home and for common people. 
The literary style of Arabic, for example, has 
become so artificially stilted and obscure that 
only highly educated people can read some of 
the daily papers, and poetry generally requires 
footnotes to make it intelligible. " The paucity 
of literature of all kinds in Turkey, where gov- 
ernment press regulations prohibit any general 
output of publications," we are told by a lady 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 59 

missionary, " combined with the general poverty 
of the people, makes many a home bookless and 
the great majority of lives barren." 

The Moslem village school is a caricature 
of what lower education should be, and the 
Moslem Mullah, with all his learned-ignorance 
and fanaticism, is the finished product of the 
higher education. In all Moslem schools not 
yet influenced by Western civilization, the 
Ptolemaic system is taught, not only in astron- 
omy (as indeed the Koran compels), but the 
whole realm of thought is made to revolve 
around the little world of Mohammed and his 
book. 1 

For five hundred years Islam has been su- Turkey 
preme in Turkey, one of the fairest and richest 
portions of the Old World as regards natural 
resources. And what is the result ? The 
Mohammedan population has decreased ; the 
treasury is bankrupt ; progress is blocked ; 
instead of wealth, universal poverty ; instead 
of comeliness, rags ; instead of commerce, beg- 
gary, — a failure greater and more absolute 
than history can elsewhere present. 

In most Mohammedan countries, the general No Arts 
ignorance of the people is plainly evident in 
the rude and crude methods of agriculture, 
building, and transportation. Wheeled car- 
riages or carts are unknown in Arabia, Persia, 
and Afghanistan, save as they are imported 
from other lands. The first pump ever seen in 

1 See The Missionary Review of the World, February, 
1908. 



60 MOSLEM LANDS 

eastern Arabia was imported by the mission- 
aries, and in Oman many children still use the 
bleached shoulder-blades of camels instead of 
slates at school. 

No Banking The Algeciras Conference made much ado 
about the new bank for Morocco, but a resident 
of the country writes in the North American 
Review: "And in regard to the bank. The 
Moors have not the least comprehension of 
the workings of a bank, and, moreover, their 
religion forbids them to deposit their money in 
one. Moors who have money bank it in the 
ground. Many of them die without disclosing 
to any one else their place of deposit. No 
Moor dares to appear rich for fear of being cast 
into prison and despoiled by the officials of his 
Government, or for fear of assassination at the 
hands of other robbers. The Government has 
no public works, and the mass of the people 
have no arts and trades. The bank will find 
it next to impossible to deal with the Moors." 

" Of other robbers " ! How eloquent is that 
phrase to describe the condition of "life, lib- 
erty, and the pursuit of happiness " in darkest 
Morocco! 

Superstition Superstition and Quackery. — These twin- 
sisters of Ignorance are also a curse in Moslem 
lands. And both of them trace their lineage 
back to the Koran and the traditions of Islam. 
A volume might be written on the superstitions, 
of Mohammed, and a volume has been compiled 
on all his ignorant quackery by a learned 
Moslem and entitled " The Science of Medi- 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 61 

cine according to the Prophet" QEt-Tub en 
Nebawi). 

Mohammed gave instructions to his follow- Omens 
ers in regard to omens, charms, talismans, and and Dreams 
witchcraft. " If a fly falls into a dish of vict- 
uals," he said, "plunge it in completely, then 
take it out and throw it away ; for in one of its 
wings is a cause of sickness, and in the other a 
cause of health ; and in falling it falls on the 
sick wing ; and if it is submerged, the other 
will counteract its bad effect." To make a bad 
dream harmless, he thought it necessary to spit 
three times over the left shoulder. He was 
very careful to begin everything from the right 
side, and to end with the left ; and he smeared 
the antimony first in his right eye. His idea 
of omens, however, was more sensible: he 
admitted lucky omens, but forbade belief in 
unlucky ones. 

These are only single paragraphs from a 
whole literature of superstition that has been 
collected, treasured, augmented, and believed 
for thirteen centuries. 

A large part of current medical practice Medicine 
among Mohammedans rests on superstition. 
KeU or actual cautery, is, according to Mo- 
hammed, the last cure for all sorts of diseases ; 
so also is Khelal, or perforating the skin surface 
with a red-hot iron and then passing a thread 
through the hole to facilitate suppuration. 
Scarcely one Arab or Persian in a hundred who 
has not some kei-marks on his body ; even in- 
fants are burned most cruelly in this way to 



62 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Amulets 



The 
Child-witch 



relieve diseases of childhood. Where kei fails, 
they have recourse to words written on paper 
either from the Koran, or, by law of contra- 
ries, words of evil, sinister import. These the 
patient " takes " either by swallowing them, 
paper and all, or by drinking the ink-water in 
which the writing is washed off. 

The following are used as amulets in many 
Moslem lands : a small Koran suspended from 
the shoulder ; a chapter written on paper and 
folded in a leather case ; some names of God 
and their numerical values; the names of the 
Prophet and his companions ; greenstones with- 
out inscriptions ; beads, old coins, teeth, holy 
earth in small bags. Amulets are not only 
worn by the Moslems themselves and to pro- 
tect their children from the evil eye, but are 
put on camels, donkeys, horses, fishing-boats, 
and sometimes over the doors of their dwellings. 
The Arabs are very superstitious in every way. 

In Hejaz, if a child is very ill, the mother 
takes seven flat loaves of bread and puts them 
under its pillow; in the morning the loaves 
are given to the dogs — and the child is not 
always cured. Rings are worn against the in- 
fluence of evil spirits ; incense or evil-smelling 
compounds are burned in the sick-room to drive 
away the devil ; mystic symbols are written on 
the walls for a similar purpose. Love-philtres 
are everywhere used and in demand ; and name- 
less absurdities are committed to insure child- 
birth. The child-witch, called Um-es-subyan, 
is feared by all mothers; narcotics are used 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 63 

freely to quiet unruly infants and, naturally, 
mortality is very large. Of surgery and mid- Surgery 
wifery the Moslems, as a rule, are totally igno- 
rant, and if their medical treatment is purely 
ridiculous, their surgery is piteously cruel, al- 
though never intentionally so. In all eastern 
Arabia, blind women are preferred as midwives, 
and rock-salt is used by them against puerperal 
hemorrhage. Gunshot wounds are treated in 
Bahrein by a poultice of dates, onions, and tam- 
arind; and the accident is guarded against in 
the future by wearing a " lead-amulet." 

There are many other superstitions in no 
way connected with the treatment of the sick. 
Tree-worship and stone-worship still exist in Tree- 
many parts of Arabia in spite of the so-called worsni P 
"pure monotheism" of Islam. Both of these 
forms of worship date back to the time of idol- 
atry, and remain as they were partly by the sanc- 
tion of Mohammed himself, for did he not make 
the black stone in the Kaaba, the centre of his 
system of prayer ? Sacred trees are called Man- 
ahil, places where angels or jinn descend ; no 
leaf of such trees may be plucked, and they are 
honored with sacrifices of shreds of flesh, while 
they look gay with bits of calico and beads 
which every worshipper hangs on the shrine. 
Just outside of the Mecca gate at Jiddah stands 
one of these rag trees with its crowd of pil- 
grims ; in Yemen they are found by every way- 
side and also in Baluchistan and southern Persia. 

The Gospel the Only Remedy. — It is very 
evident that no remedy for these great social 



64 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Islam 
Bankrupt 



We are 
Debtors 



evils can be found in Islam/ The Moslem 
world has long since suspended payment, — it 
never had reserve capital, — and is socially bank- 
rupt. There is no power of reform from within. 
Falsehood, immorality, slavery, the degradation 
of marriage, the pollution of the home, the crush- 
ing yoke of universal ignorance and supersti- 
tion, — all these can be uprooted and destroyed 
only by Him who is the Way, the Truth, and 
the Life — the Light of the world and the Sav- 
iour of men. 

"As a social system," writes Stanley Lane 
Poole, " Islam is a complete failure : it has 
misunderstood the relation of the sexes, upon 
which the whole character of a nation's life 
hangs, and by degrading women has degraded 
each successive generation of their children 
down an increasing scale of infamy and cor- 
ruption, until it seems almost impossible to 
reach a lower level of vice." But there is no 
level of vice so low that the Gospel cannot 
reach and uplift men and women from it. 
There is hope for the Mohammedan home and 
Mohammedan society and Mohammedan hearts 
in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Because we know 
this and they are ignorant of it, we are debt- 
ors. And who can read of such social evils 
without a thought of the Christ in His relation 
to them and to us ? 



"My God, can such things be? 
Hast thou not said, that whatso'er is done 
Unto Thy weakest and Thy humblest one 
Is even done to Thee ? 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 65 

" Hoarse, horrible and strong 
Rises to heaven that agonizing cry, 
Filling the arches of the hollow sky, 
How long, O God, how long?" 

HELPS FOR LEADERS 

Lesson Aim : 

To show the hopeless character of Islam for the pres- 
ent life and its moral bankruptcy. 
Scripture Lesson : 

Rom. 1 : 18-32 ; Phil. 3 : 18, 19 ; Matt. 7 : 15-20. 
Suggestive Questions : 

1. Write a short paper on Child-life in Persia. 

2. What are the chief amusements forbidden by the 
Moslem religion ? 

3. Has any land under Moslem rule a public-school 
system or public libraries ? 

4. Contrast the rights of women according to the 
Mosaic law and according to the Koran. 

5. What is the present commercial condition of 
Morocco ? 

6. Draw a map of the railroads in the Turkish 
Empire. 

7. Give instances of cruel native medical practice in 
Arabia, Tripoli, Morocco. 

8. Was Mohammed a kind husband? 

9. Locate the present centres of the slave trade on 
the map. 

10. Describe zenana life in Hyderabad, India. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

"Our Moslem Sisters — A Cry of Xeed from Lands of 
Darkness " (Papers by Missionaries). Fleming H. Re veil 
Co., 1907. 

Dr. James S. Dennis, " Christian Missions and Social 
Progress," Vol. I, pp. 79, 91, 93, 98, 105-110, 115, 275- 
277, 334, 335, 389-391. Vol. II, 375, etc. 

F 



66 MOSLEM LANDS 

"The Mohammedan World of To-day." (Consult 
index.) 

Robert E. Speer. "Missionary Principles and Prac- 
tice" (Chapters XXIV, XXV). 

Hughes, " Dictionary of Islam." Articles on Divorce, 
Marriage, Slavery, Women, Jihad. 

Major Osborne, " Islam under the Arabs." London, 
1876. 

Major Osborne, " Islam under the Caliphs." London, 
1878. 

Lane, " Manners and Customs of Modern Egyptians." 

ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS 

The Most Degraded Religion. — "Mohammedanism is 
held by many who have to live under its shadow to be 
the most degraded religion, morally, in the world. We 
speak of it as superior to the other religions because of 
its monotheistic faith, but I would rather believe in ten 
pure gods than in one God who would have for his 
supreme prophet and representative a man with Moham- 
med's moral character. Missionaries from India will tell 
you that the actual moral conditions to be found among 
Mohammedans there are more terrible than those to be 
found among the pantheistic Hindus themselves; and 
the late Dr. Cochran, of Persia, a man who had unsur- 
passed opportunities for seeing the inner life of Moham- 
medan men, told me, toward the close of his life, that he 
could not say, out of his long and intimate acquaintance 
as a doctor with the men of Persia, that he had ever met 
one pure-hearted or pure-lived adult man among the 
Mohammedans of Persia. Can a religion of immorality, 
or moral inferiority, meet the needs of struggling men?" 
— Robert E. Speer, at the Nashville Convention, 1905. 

The Pride of Fanaticism. — Only five years ago Sheikh 
Abd ul Hak, of Bagdad, a Moslem of the old school, 
wrote an article on behalf of the Pan-Islamic league. It 
appeared in a French journal, and was entitled " The 
Final Word of Islam to Europe." From this remark- 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 67 

able, outspoken, and doubtless sincere defiance, we quote 
the following paragraph : — 

" For us in the world there are only believers and unbe- 
lievers; love, charity, fraternity toward ' believers ; con- 
tempt, disgust, hatred, and war against unbelievers. 
Amongst unbelievers, the most hateful and criminal are 
those who, while recognizing God, attribute to Him 
earthly relationships, give Him a son, a mother. Learn 
then, European observers, that a Christian of no matter 
what position, from the simple fact that he is a Chris- 
tian, is in our eyes a blind man fallen from all human 
dignity. Other infidels have rarely been aggressive 
toward us. But Christians have in all times shown 
themselves our bitterest enemies. . . . The only excuse 
you offer is that you reproach us with being rebellious 
against your civilization. Yes, rebellious, and rebellious 
till death ; but it is you, and you alone, who are the 
cause of this. Great God ! are we blind enough not to 
see the prodigies of your progress ? But know, Christian 
conquerors, that no calculation, no treasure, no miracle 
can ever reconcile us to your impious rule. Know that 
the mere sight of your flag here is torture to Islam's 
soul ; your greatest benefits are so many spots sullying 
our conscience, and our most ardent aspiration and hope 
is to reach the happy day when we can efface the last 
vestiges of your accursed empire." 1 

Mohammed's Ideas about Women. — " The fatal blot in 
Islam is the degradation of women. Yet it would be 
hard to lay the blame altogether on Mohammed. . . . 
His ideas about women were like those of the rest of 
his contemporaries. He looked upon them as charming 
snares to the believer, ornamental articles of furniture 
difficult to keep in order, pretty playthings; but that a 
woman should be the counsellor and companion of a man 
does not seem to have occurred to him. It is to be won- 
dered that the feeling of respect he always entertained 

1 Quoted in Der Christliche Orient, Berlin, Vol. IY, p. 
145. And also at the time, in other papers from the French 
original. 



68 MOSLEM LANDS 

for his first wife, Khadijah (which, however, is partly 
accounted for by the fact that she was old enough to 
have been his mother), found no counterpart in his gen- 
eral opinion of womankind : * Woman was made from 
a crooked rib, and if you try to bend it straight, it will 
break ; therefore treat your wives kindly.' 

" Kind as the prophet was himself towards bondswomen, 
one cannot forget the unutterable brutalities which he 
suffered his followers to inflict upon conquered nations in 
the taking of slaves. The Muslim soldier was allowed to 
do as he pleased with any l infidel' woman he might 
meet with on his victorious march. When one thinks of 
the thousands of women, mothers and daughters, who 
must have suffered untold shame and dishonour by this 
license, he cannot find words to express his horror. And 
this cruel indulgence has left its mark on the Muslim 
character, nay, on the whole character of Eastern life." 

— Stanley Lane Poole. 

A Lawsuit in Morocco. — " Moorish judges respect no 
law in their decisions, but twist and turn the code to their 
own private gain. To the mind of a modern judge, the 
cleverest and most convincing argument is a goodly 
bribe. Litigants are often forced to abandon their cases 
because they find themselves unable to satisfy the greed 
of the judges. The following is an example of modern 
justice : Two adversaries present themselves before the 
judge. The plaintiff states his case. The defendant 
(who has already sent to the judge's house a handsome 
mirror) states his case, at the same time casting a signifi- 
cant glance at the judge. The judge is about to decide in 
favor of the defendant, when the plaintiff (who is not at 
law for the first time) gives the judge a knowing look, 
and begs that judgment may be deferred until the follow- 
ing day. The request is granted. The following morn- 
ing, the plaintiff goes personally to the judge's house 
with a magnificent mule. He finds the judge has already 
gone to the court, so he leaves the mule and instructs the 
servants to inform the judge of the animal's arrival. The 
plaintiff then goes on his way to the court, where he finds 



THE SOCIAL EVILS OF ISLAM 69 

the judge and the defendant. While the adversaries are 
standing before the judge, a servant of the latter enters, 
and announces that ' The mule has smashed the mirror ! ' 
Judgment is at once rendered in favor of the plaintiff." 
— Asaad Kalarji Karam (in the North American Re- 
view, Xovember, 1906). 



" There are weak points in Islam which, if persistently 
attacked, must lead to its eventual overthrow, while 
Christianity has forces which make it more than a match 
for Mohammedanism or any other religion. From its 
birth Islam has been steeped in blood and lust, blood 
spilt and lust sated by the sanctions of religion. The 
Koran is doomed." — Ion Keith Falconer. 

" I long for the prayers of your band of intercessors, 
offering this simple request that, as the Arab has been so 
grievously a successful instrument in deposing Christ 
from His throne (for this long season only) in so many 
fair and beautiful regions of the East ... so the Arab 
may be, in God's good providence, at least one of the 
main auxiliaries and reinforcements in restoring the great 
King, and reseating Him on David's throne of judgment 
and mercy, and, above all, God's throne of righteousness ! " 
— Bishop T. Valpy French (Muscat, 1891). 

"I believe we are in the midst of a great battle. We 
are not ourselves fighting, we are simply accepting every- 
thing that comes. But the powers of light are fighting 
against the powers of darkness, and they will certainly 
prevail." — Hester Needham (in Sumatra). 



70 



CHAPTER III 

THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 

The Centuries of Neglect. — Not without rea- Long 
son did Raymund Lull, even in the thirteenth Neglect 
century, pour out his complaint of the utter 
indifference in his day toward the spiritual 
need of the Saracens. 

" I see many knights," he wrote, " going to the Holy 
Land beyond the seas and thinking that they can acquire 
it by force of arms ; but in the end all are destroyed be- 
fore they attain that which they think to have. Whence 
it seems to me that the conquest of the Holy Land ought 
not to be attempted except in the way in which Thou and 
Thine aposttes acquired it, namely, by love and prayers, 
and the pouring out of tears and of blood." 

And at another time he prays: — 

" Lord of Heaven, Father of all times, when Thou didst Lull's 
send Thy Son to take upon Him human nature, He and Prayer 
His apostles lived in outward peace with Jews, Pharisees, 
and other men ; for never by outward violence did they 
capture or slay any of the unbelievers, or of those who 
persecuted them. Of this outward peace they availed 
themselves to bring the erring to the knowledge of the 
truth and to a communion of spirit with themselves. And 
so after Thy example should Christians conduct them-* 
selves toward Moslems ; but since that ardour of devotion 
which glowed in apostles and holy men of old no longer 
inspires us, love and devotion through almost all the world 
have grown cold, and therefore do Christians expend 
their efforts far more in the outward than in the spiritual 
conflict." 

71 



72 MOSLEM LANDS 

But his was a voice as of one born before his 
age and crying in the wilderness. Had the 
spirit of Raymund Lull filled the Church, we 
would not to-day speak of over two hundred 
millions unevangelized Moslems. Even as Islam 
itself arose a scourge of God upon an unholy 
and idolatrous Church, so Islam grew strong 
and extended to China on the east and Sierra 
Leone on the west, because the Church never so 
much as touched the hem of the vast hosts of 
Islam to evangelize them. The terror of the 
Saracen and Turk smothered in every heart even 
the desire to carry them the Gospel. When the 
missionary revival began with Carey, the idea 
was to carry the Gospel to the heathen. 

Henry Martyn was the first modern mission- 
ary to preach to the Mohammedans ; he met 
them in India, Arabia, and Persia ; his contro- 
versial tracts date the beginning of the conflict 
with the learning of Islam. 

The tiny rill that flowed almost unnoticed has 
gathered volume and strength with the growth 
of missionary interest, until in our day it has 
become a stream of thought and effort going out 
to many lands and peoples of the Moslem world. 

When Dr. Jessup wrote his little classic, " The 
Mohammedan Missionary Problem," in 1879, 
there were no missionaries in all Arabia, Tunis, 
Morocco, Tripoli, or Algiers. Christendom 
was ignorant of the extent and character of Is- 
lam in Central Africa ; little was known of the 
Mohammedans in China, and the last chapter in 
the history of Turkey was the Treaty of Berlin. 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 73 

The problem has greatly changed; old factors 
are cancelled and new factors have appeared. 
But we can still say with the writer, although we 
must add twenty -five million to the estimate 
then made of the number of Mohammedans : 
" It is our earnest hope and prayer that this re- 
vival of interest in the historical, theological, 
and ethical bearings of Islam may result in a 
new practical interest in the spiritual welfare 
of the Mohammedan nations. It is high time 
for the Christian Church to ask seriously the 
question whether the last command of Christ 
concerns the one hundred and seventy-five 
millions of the Mohammedan world." 

There has been the work of illustrious pio- what has 
neers, and wherever Protestant missions came keen done 
in contact with Islam, whether laboring for 
the reformation of the Oriental Churches or in 
heathen lands, a great work of preparation has 
been accomplished. But the fact remains that 
no part of the non-Christian world has been so 
long and so widely neglected as Islam. The 
task has either appeared so formidable, the ob- 
stacles so great, or faith has been so weak, that 
one might think the Church imagined her great 
commission to evangelize the world did not 
apply to Mohammedans. 

There are to-day eighty-eight societies organ- 
ized for the conversion of the Jews ; but no great 
missionary society has yet been organized to 
convert Mohammedans, and scarcely a dozen 
missions are professedly working directly among 
and for Moslems. In a recent sumptuous volume 



74 MOSLEM LANDS 

of six hundred pages, published in Germany, on 
the history of Protestant missions, work for 
Moslems is dismissed in a single paragraph and 
labelled hopeless. 

" Christendom," says Keller, ''accustomed 
itself, ever since the time of the Crusades, to 
look upon Islam as its most bitter foe and not 
as a prodigal son, to be won back to the Father's 
house." Islam had rooted itself for centuries 
in every land before modern missions came to 
grapple with the problem. The Church was 

Lost ages behind time, and lost splendid opportunities. 

Opportunity Christian missions came to Persia one thousand 
years after Islam entered. In Arabia and North 
Africa twelve centuries intervened. 

The fatalism attributed to Mohammedans is 
not one-half so fatalistic in its spirit as that 
which for centuries has been practically held by 
the Christian Church as to the hope or necessity 
of bringing the hosts of Islam into the following 
of Jesus Christ. There may have been reasons 
in time past for this unreadiness or unwilling- 
ness, such as political barriers and fear of death 
from Moslem fanaticism. To-day we cannot 
plead such excuse, for we have already seen how 
large a part of the Mohammedan world is under 
Christian rule and protection. 

Typical Typical Pioneers and Typical Fields. — It is 

Pioneers impossible within the limits of a chapter to tell 
the whole story of the conflict between Chris- 
tianity and Islam in the wide Moslem world 
during the past centuries. The work of the il- 
lustrious pioneers in each of the fields now occu- 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 75 

pied would alone require many books. Whose 
life, for example, was more worthy of an elabo- 
rately written biography in two volumes, than 
that of the seven-tongued Bishop of Lahore, Bishop 
who labored for Moslems in India and laid French 
down his life for them at Muscat? Yet here 
we can scarcely give him a paragraph. 

The same is true of each mission field in the 
Levant or in North Africa. The story is so 
full of interesting material, and so eloquently 
sets forth " the work of faith and labor of love 
and patience of hope " of those who are toiling 
on Moslem soil with plough and seed-basket, 
that it seems almost impossible to condense it. 
We have, however, attempted the impossible by 
selecting typical cases, both of early pioneer 
effort and of present activity. 

Some of the Mohammedan lands have already 
been treated or touched on in previous text- 
books of this series. 1 Others require special 
treatment ; and still others belong to the un- 
occupied fields of the world where live the un- 
reached millions for whom Christ died. A 
following chapter treats of the last named ; this 
chapter treats of the lands that are in a sense 
" occupied," although nowhere the forces at 
work are at all commensurate with the needs 
and opportunities. 

Three pioneers stand out prominently in the 

i " Via Christi," pp. 47-51 ; " Lux Christi," pp. 48-52 ; 
" Rex Christi," pp. 76, 222; " Christus Liberator/' pp. 57-72, 
61,62,69, 168, 178, 281; "Christus Redemptor," pp. 222- 
226 ; "Gloria Christi," pp. 2, 11, 72, 259. 



76 MOSLEM LANDS 

story of missions to the Mohammedan world, 
Raymund Lull was the pioneer martyr and the 
first to urge by word and work the supreme 
need of special training for the evangelization 
of Moslems. Henry Martyn was the pioneer 
of the Modern Missionary- Century, and led the 
way in the great task of giving the Mohammedan 
world the Bible. Karl Gottlieb Pfander was a 
pioneer in the preparation of controversial liter- 
ature, and became a champion for the truth 
whose, message reaches the Moslem literati even 
to-day, from Constantinople to Calcutta. All 
three were preeminently missionaries to the 
Mohammedans, and stand out, like Saul in 
Israel, higher than any of their contemporaries 
from their shoulders and upward in this respect. 

Raymund Lull. — Eugene Stock, formerly 
editorial Secretary of the Church Missionary 
Society, declares " there is no more heroic 
figure in the history of Christendom than that 
of Raymund Lull, the first and perhaps the 
greatest missionary to Mohammedans." 

" Of all the men of his century," says another 
student of missions, " of whom we know, Ray- 
mund Lull was most possessed by the love and 
life of Christ, and most eager accordingly to 
share his possession with the world. It sets 
forth the greatness of Lull's character the more 
strikingly to see how sharply he rose above the 
world and the Church of his day, anticipating 
by many centuries moral standards, intellectual 
conceptions, and missionary ambitions to which 
we have grown only since the Reformation." 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 77 

Raymund Lull was born at Palma in the His Early 
island of Majorca, in 1235, of a distinguished Llfe 
Catalonian family, and when of age spent several 
years at the court of the king of Aragon. He 
was a court poet, a skilled musician, and a gay 
knight before he became a scholastic philosopher 
and an ardent missionary to the Mohammedans. 
The manner of his conversion at the age of 
thirty-two reminds one of the experience of Saul 
on his way to Damascus, and of St. Augustine 
under the fig tree at Milan. After his vision of 
the Christ, he sold all his property, gave the 
money to the poor, and reserved only a scanty 
allowance for his wife and children. He entered 
upon a thorough course of study, mastered the 
Arabic language, using a Saracen slave as 
teacher, and began his life work at the age of 
forty. 

The work to which he felt called and for Call 
which he gave his life with wonderful persever- 
ance and devotion was threefold. He worked 
out a philosophical system to persuade non- 
Christians, especially Moslems, of the truth of 
Christianity ; he established missionary colleges 
for the study of Oriental languages; and he 
himself went and preached to the Moslems, 
sealing his witness with his blood. 

In his fifty-sixth year, after vain efforts to 
arouse others to a missionary enterprise on be- 
half of the Mohammedans, he determined to set 
out alone and single-handed preach Christ in 
North Africa. On arriving at Tunis, he invited 
the Moslem literati to a conference. He an- 



78 



MOSLEM LANDS 



nounced that he had studied the arguments on 
both sides of the question, and was willing to 
submit the evidences for Christianity and for 
Islam to a fair comparison. The challenge was 
accepted, but the Moslems being worsted in 
argument, and fanaticism being aroused, Lull 

imprisoned was cast into a filthy dungeon by order of the 
Sultan, and narrowly escaped death. After 
bitter persecutions, he returned to Europe, 
where he made other missionary journeys. 

In 1307, he was again on the shores of Africa, 
and at Bugia in the market-place stood up boldly 
and preached Christ to the Moslem populace. 
Once again his pleadings were met with violence, 
and he was flung into a dungeon, where he re- 
mained for six months, preaching to the few 
who came, and befriended only by some mer- 
chants of Genoa and Spain, who took pity on 
the aged missionary of the Cross. 

Banished Although banished for a second time, and 

with threats against his life if he returned, 
Lull could not resist the call of the Love that 
ruled his life. " He that loves not, lives not," 
said he, " and he that lives by the Life cannot 
die." So in 1314 the veteran of eighty years 
returned to Africa and to his little band of 
Moslem converts. 

For over ten months he dwelt in hiding, talk- 
ing and praying with those who had accepted 
Christ, and trying to win others. Weary of 
seclusion, he at length came forth into the open 
market and presented himself to the people as 
the man whom they had expelled. It was 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 79 

Elijah showing himself to a mob of Ahabs. 
Lull stood before them and threatened them 
with God's wrath if they still persisted in their 
errors. He pleaded with love, but spoke the 
whole truth. Filled with fanatic fury at his 
boldness, and unable to reply to his arguments, 
the populace seized him and dragged him out 
of the town. 

There, by the command, or at least the His 
connivance of the Moslem ruler, he was stoned Mart y rdom 
on the 30th of June, 1315. And so he became 
the first martyr missionary to Islam. To be 
stoned to death while preaching the love of 
Christ to Moslems, that was the fitting end 
for such a life. 

Yet his was a voice crying in the wilderness, 
and his loneliness was the loneliness of leader- 
ship when there are none awake to follow. 
" One step further," says George Smith, "but 
some slight response from his church or his 
age, and Raymund Lull would have anticipated 
William Carey by exactly seven centuries." 

Henry Martyn. — Between the death of Ray- Henry 
mund Lull and the year 1806, when Henry Mart ^ 1 
Martyn, the first modern missionary to the 
Mohammedans, reached India, five centuries 
intervened. During these five hundred years, 
Islam was spreading in all directions through- 
out Africa, receiving a new lease of life through 
the Turk in the Levant and taking root in new 
lands and on the Malaysian islands, which had 
not even a name or place on the maps of the 
Middle Ages. While there were no missions to 



80 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Moslems, the Moslems were themselves mission- 
aries and propagandists. 

After reading the story of the spread of Islam 
during these long years, one cannot help feel- 
ing that the sloth of the Church was the oppor- 
tunity of the false faith. After five centuries 
of inactivity, the mantle of Raymund Lull fell 
upon Henry Martyn, saint and scholar, mission- 
ary and martyr. 

" His life," says Dr. George Smith, " is 
the perpetual heritage of all English-speak- 
ing Christendom and of the native churches 
of India, Arabia, Persia, and Anatolia in all 
time to come." Born at Truro, Cornwall, on 
February 18, 1781, he entered Cambridge in 
1797 and was graduated with the highest aca- 
demical honor of " senior wrangler." It was 
his intention at one time to devote himself 
to law, but the sudden death of his father 
and the faithful preaching of Mr. Simeon led 
to his conversion ; and afterward, the perusal 
of the life of David Brainerd brought the 
decision to become a missionary. 

He knew the struggle that was before him, 
and wrote: "I am going upon a work exactly 
according to the mind of Christ, and my 
glorious Lord, whose power is uncontrollable, can 
easily open a way for His feeble followers 
through the thickest of the ranks of His enemies. 
And now let me go, smiling at my foes ; how 
small are human obstacles before this mighty 
Lord." 

And going out in that dauntless spirit, with 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 81 

his heart on fire for the benighted peoples of 
the East, he sailed as chaplain of the East India 
Company, and arrived in India in 1806. No 
wonder that before his arrival and on the long 
journey he had already studied Sanscrit, Per- 
sian, and Arabic. He labored unceasingly by 
tongue and pen, by preaching and by prayer, Burning out 
"to bum out for God" for God 

In 1808 he completed a version of the New 
Testament in Hindustani, and later into other 
languages of India. With a special desire to 
reach the Mohammedans of India, he perfected 
himself in Persian, the court language, and 
began a version of the New Testament in that 
language. In 1811 he sailed from Calcutta to 
Bombay and for the Persian Gulf, partly be- 
cause of his broken health, but more so, as is 
evident from his journals, that he might give 
the Mohammedans of Arabia and Persia the 
word of God. On his voyage from Calcutta to 
Bombay, he composed tracts in Arabic, spoke 
with the Arab sailors, and studied the Koran. 
He stopped at Muscat on April 20, and we can 
tell what his thoughts then were in regard 
to this Cradle of Islam, for a year earlier Journeys 
he wrote in his diary : " If my life is spared, • 
there is no reason why the Arabic should not 
be done in Arabia and the Persian in Persia. 
. . . Arabia shall hide me till I come forth 
with an approved New Testament in Arabic. 
Will Government let me go away for three 
years before the time of my furlough arrives ? 
If not, I must quit the service, and I cannot 



82 MOSLEM LANDS 

devote my life to a more important work than 
that of preparing the Arabic Bible." 

He reached Shiraz by way of Bushire in June, 
1811, and there revised his Persian translation, 
also holding frequent discussions with the Mos- 
lem Mullahs. One year after entering Persia, 
he left Shiraz and proceeded to the Shah's camp 
near Ispahan, to lay before him the translation 
he had made. 

With clamorous controversy and fanatic ha- 
tred, they received his message and his book. 

His Witness "My book," he writes in his diary, "which I had 
for Christ brought, expecting to present it to the king, lay before 
Mirza Shufi. As they all rose up, after him, to go, some 
to the king, and some away, I was afraid they would 
trample upon the book, so I went in among them to take 
it up, and wrapped it in a towel, before them while they 
looked at it and me with supreme contempt. Thus I 
walked away alone, to pass the rest of the day in heat 
and dirt. What have I done, thought I, to merit all 
this scorn? Nothing, thought I, but bearing testimony 
to Jesus. I thought over these things in prayer, and 
found that peace which Christ hath promised to His 
disciples." 

From Shiraz Martyn went to Tabriz and there 
arranged for the presentation of his New Testa- 
ment to the Shah of Persia, through the Brit- 
ish Ambassador. Unable to recover strength 
after much fever, he left Tabriz on horseback, 
September 12, 1812, with two Armenian ser- 
vants for England, via Constantinople, a land 
journey of one thousand miles. At Tokat, he 
was compelled to stop from utter prostration, 
and after a week's illness died, October 16, 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 83 

1812. He had " burned out for God," but be- Last Jour- 
fore the flame died it had kindled a hundred ^ t ^ nd 
lives and still burns on. 

His testimony was not wholly in vain, even 
in those early days. We read of one, at least, 
who accepted the truth and, as Martyn him- 
self said, "Even if I never should see a native 
converted, God may design, by my patience 
and continuance in the work, to encourage fu- 
ture missionaries." Only the Last Day will 
reveal the extent of the influence of this man, 
who, with no Christian to tend or comfort him 
in his last illness, laid down his life for the 
Mohammedan world. 

The monument erected to him by the East 
India Company at Tokat, bearing on its four 
sides an inscription in English, Armenian, Tur- 
kish, and Persian, is a fitting symbol of the 
breadth of his life, which lay four-square to the 
love of God and the service of humanity. 

Karl Gottlieb Pf ander. — This great mission- Pfander 
ary, linguist, and controversial writer, who left 
so wide and permanent an impression through- 
out the Mohammedan world, was born at Waib- 
lingen, Germany, in 1803. He prepared for 
missionary work at the Basel Training Institu- 
tion, and was sent out in 1825. 

Although only twenty-two years old, he be- 
gan the study of three difficult languages, Tur- 
kish, Armenian, and Persian. In 1829, he went 
to Bagdad to learn Arabic, and two years later 
to Ispahan. On a missionary journey to the 
town of Kermanshah, after a discussion with 



81 MOSLEM LANDS 

the Mullahs, he came near to winning the same 
martyr's crown that Lull received at Bugia. 
He knew the danger of publicly preaching the 
truths that opposed the teaching of Islam, but 
putting his trust in God, he preached Christ 
boldly. On this account the enraged Moslem 
priesthood held a council that night, and it was 
announced the next day in the mosques that 
Life and his books must all be destroyed (because they 
Death were bound in pigskin, which was unclean), 

and that he must be killed. But God spared 
his life and he labored on, first in Russia, then 
in India, and finally in Constantinople. Every- 
where his tongue and pen were mighty forces 
in the proclamation of the truth. He died at 
Richmond-on-the-Thames, December 1, 1865. 
An Apology Pfander, when expelled from Russia in 1835, 
Christianity s P en ^ m uch of his time in making a revised 
edition of his remarkable book, u Mizan-ul-Hak," 
The Balance of Truth, and wrote some other 
books on Sin, Salvation, and the Trinity for 
Moslems. The "Mizan-ul-Hak" is a wonderful 
apology for Christianity, and has been trans- 
lated into many languages. It proves the need 
of a revelation, the integrity of the Bible, and 
the necessity of the Atonement. The last chap- 
ter refutes Islam and the claims of Mohammed 
as Prophet. 

Pfander felt, as many have since his day, 
that the judicious use of such tactful literature 
is one of the best ways of evangelizing Moslems. 
It is often better to persuade a Moslem to read 
a portion of Scripture or a book or tract than 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 85 

to speak to him directly. Ink is cold. A 
written argument appeals to the mind and con- 
science in solitude. There is no pride in an- 
swering back glibly or irreverently to a printed 
page. It was said of the old Romans that "as 
they shortened their swords they lengthened 
their territories." So will it be in the conflict 
with Islam. The way for the Church to con- 
quer is to come to close quarters with the foe. 

And in the irrepressible conflict with Islam, The Use of 
Pfander's life and writings teach the truth of Such Books 
Wolseley's war maxim, " Find out your enemy's 
weakest and most vulnerable point and hit him 
there as hard as you can with all your might." 
Islam's strength is to be left alone ; put on the 
defensive, its weakness is evident even to those 
who defend it. Controversy is not evangeliza- 
tion, and must not take its place, but in Moslem 
lands especially it holds somewhat the same 
relation to evangelization that ploughing does to 
seed-sowing. Books like " Mizan-ul-Hak " break 
up the soil, stir thought, kill stagnation, con- 
vince the inquirer, and lead him to take a 
decided stand for the truth. 

The Gospel in North Africa. — The unbroken North 
phalanx lines of Moslem countries along the Afrlca 
Mediterranean were once the centres of Chris- 
tian teaching. Origen, Tertullian, Athanasius, 
Cyprian, and Augustine were all from North 
Africa. But Islam swept across this region 
like a desert simoom and withered the garden 
of God. Yet there exist to the present day 
among these Berber or Kabyle tribes of North 



86 MOSLEM LANDS 

Africa various customs which have come down 
to them through twelve long centuries of Mo- 
hammedanism, and which speak of the time 
when they were a Christian people. For ex- 
ample, the Kabyle women refuse to wear the 
veil, and certain of these Kabyle tribes, al- 
though they are Mohammedans, observe the 
Christian Sabbath as a day of feasting. 

The mark of a cross is tattooed on the fore- 
head of many of the boys and men at Biskra, as 
well as in other places. One such Mohamme- 
dan in the town of Setif, being asked what was 
the meaning of the cross on his forehead, 
answered, "Jesus." Miss Seguin, in her most 
interesting book, " Walks in Algiers," asserts 
that the Kabyle women are in the habit of 
Relics of the tattooing the form of the Christian cross on 
Christ their forehead. Sir Lambert Playfair writes 

regarding the Kabyles of the Aures Mountains, 
which lie immediately to the north of the 
Sahara : " Their language is full of Latin words 
and in their daily life they retain customs un- 
doubtedly derived from their Christian ances- 
tors. They observe December 25 as a feast, 
under the name of Moolid (the birth), and keep 
three days festival both at springtime and 
harvest. They use the solar instead of the 
Mohammedan lunar year, and the names of the 
months are the same as our own." 

Are not these interesting facts in themselves 
a loud call to send the Gospel to North Africa ? 
Yet all this region was neglected for twelve 
centuries in a most unaccountable way. In 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 87 

1880 Mr. George Pease began investigations in Why this 
Algiers which led to the formation of the North Lon s Ne s- 
African Mission. At that time there were only 
three Protestant missionaries between Alexandria 
and the Atlantic coast of Morocco, and not any 
southward from the Mediterranean almost to the 
Niger and the Congo. 

Now this one mission, which works very Present 
largely among Moslems, has eighteen stations Forces 
in Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, 
manned by eighty-six missionaries. A hospital 
and dispensary are established at Tangier and a 
dispensary at Fez. There are also other smaller 
independent missions working in North Africa, 
and very recently work was begun in the Sudan. 
" But," says Dr. Charles A. Watson, " for every 
missionary to the Mohammedans in Africa you 
can find twenty missionaries to the pagans of 
Africa, and for every convert from Mohamme- 
danism in Africa I think you can find one thou- 
sand converts from paganism in Africa. And 
if this does not prove that the real missionary 
problem in Africa is Mohammedanism, I scarcely 
see how that point could be proved at all." 

Darkest Mohammedan Africa, nearest to Eu- 
rope, is the healthiest part of Africa, and yet 
has by far the fewest mission stations. 

Morocco has an area of about 260,000 square Morocco 
miles (equal to five times the size of England), 
and a population estimated at from 4,000,000 to 
8,000,000. It is governed by a Sultan, whose 
name is Abd ul Aziz. The country is divided 
into districts, each of which is under the super- 



88 MOSLEM LANDS 

intendence of a Kaid. The semi-independent 
hill tribes are ruled by their own chiefs, and 
scarcely acknowledge the authority of the 
Sultan. At present the whole country is dis- 
turbed by revolutions and rebellion. 

Algeria is the most advanced in civilization 
of all the countries of North Africa, having been 
held by the French since 1830. After great ex- 
penditure of life and money, it is now thoroughly 
subject to their rule. Its extent is about three 
times that of England, and its population, 
4,500,000, principally Moslems, with some hun- 
dreds of thousands of French, Spaniards, Ital- 
ians, Jews, etc. The country has a good climate 
and much beautiful scenery; there are excellent 
roads and extensive railways. 

Tunis is under French protection, and practi- 
cally under French rule, and has a population 
of about 2,000,000, nearly all of whom are 
Mohammedans. 

Tripoli is a province of the Turkish Empire, 
several times larger than England. It has a 
population of about 1,350,000, who, with the ex- 
ception of a few thousands, are all Moslems. 
They are more intelligent and better educated 
than farther west, but much opposed to the 
Gospel. 

The soil in all these lands is hard, the plough- 
ing was too late and the sowing of the seed was 
in tears, but God is already giving the first- 
fruits of the future harvest. 

The latest reports of the North African Mis- 
sion tell us that, at almost all the stations, there 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 89 

have in past years been some converts. At Fez 
there is a band of Christians, nine or ten of 
whom are employed as colporteurs ; at Djemaa 
Sabridj there is another band, and these meet 
in two stone halls, one built for men and one 
for women. At Tangier, Alexandria, Shebin el- 
Kom, and Tunis there are also some who regu- 
larly meet with the missionaries to partake of 
the Lord's Supper. 

During 1906 some thirty Moslems were con- Results 
verted at Fez, and two men and one woman were 
baptized. At Algiers a Kabyle young man was 
baptized and another converted. At Bizerta a 
man was baptized. At Alexandria a well-edu- 
cated man, long under instruction since his 
conversion, was baptized. Several young men 
were converted at Djemaa Sabridj. At Tripoli 
a convert of many years' standing died, after 
long proof of trusting Christ for salvation and 
after preaching quietly to many others. At 
Shebin el-Kom, on New Year's Eve, ten out of 
a meeting of eighteen met around the Lord's 
Table at midnight, and dedicated themselves 
afresh to God ; seven years ago there was not 
a single convert there. In addition to these 
pronounced cases, most of whom have had 
to bear persecution, there are many secret 
disciples. 

Egypt and the Christian Crusade. — Among strategic 
all Moslem lands to-day, perhaps the most Egypt 
notable strategic point is Egypt. In Lower 
Egypt the Moslems form about nimty-eight per 
cent of the population, and in Upper Egypt about 



90 MOSLEM LANDS 

eighty-eight per cent. The need of the country- 
is therefore the need of the Moslems. 

Egypt is under British rule and connected by 
regular rail and steamboat service with distant 

Cairo points in Africa. Cairo is the literary capital 

of the Mohammedan world, as Mecca is its reli- 
gious, and Constantinople its political capital. 
And the streams of Moslem thought through 
the printed page go out from Cairo to the utter- 
most confines of the Moslem world. A book 
sold at Cairo may be read the next month by 
the camp-fires of the Sahara, in the market-place 
of Timbuktu, or under the very shadow of the 
Kaaba. 

Early Effort Realizing this strategic importance, the 
Church Missionary Society, as early as 1825, 
sent a band of five Basel men to Egypt, one 
of them the famous Samuel Gobat. There 
were schools and distribution of the Scripture 
and conversations with thoughtful Copts and 
Moslems, but the encouragement was small. 
Mohammedanism appeared unassailable. The 
first American missionaries reached Egypt in 
1854, and every student of missions knows how 
their mission has spread along the entire Nile 
Valley and grown in numbers, influence, and 
results chiefly among the Copts, but also among 
the Moslems. 1 For example, last year over 
three thousand Moslem pupils were attending 
the American mission schools, and for the past 

1 See Charles R. Watson, " Egypt and the Christian Cru- 
sade,' ' for the story of this splendid mission and of the 
other missions in Egypt. 



THE STORY OF 3IISSI0NS TO MOSLEMS 91 

five years meetings for public discussion of The Ameri- 
the difference between Islam and Christianity can M^ 651011 
have been held twice a week in Cairo. Spe- 
cial literature for Moslems has also been printed 
and distributed. 

In 1882 the Church Missionary Society re- 
sumed its work, especially among Moslems, 
through medical and literary agencies, with 
very encouraging results. Special effort is be- 
ing made to reach the ten thousand students 
of the Mohammedan University, El Azhar. 
Other societies, too, are laboring in Egypt, and 
the Nile Mission Press is scattering leaves of 
healing. All the Protestant missions working other 
in Egypt report one hundred and seven per- Workers 
manent foreign workers regularly engaged in 
mission work. This makes a parish of eighty 
thousand souls for each missionary. The evan- 
gelical church counts nearly nine thousand 
members, most of them gathered from the 
Copts. For every Protestant Christian in 
Egypt there are : one Jew, about three Roman 
Catholics, over twenty-six Copts, and three 
hundred and sixty-nine Moslems. 

Yet it is encouraging that Moslem life and The Future 
thought in Egypt are undergoing great changes. 
The leaven of the Gospel is reaching the Mos- 
lem masses, and there are more inquirers and 
converts from year to year. The first Ecu- 
menical Conference of workers among Moslems, 
held in Cairo in 1906, was a prophecy of the 
day when this stronghold of Islam shall become 
the possession of Jesus Christ. 



92 MOSLEM LANDS 

Turkey The Turkish Empire. — The territory of the 

Turkish Empire is well covered by mission 
societies. The American Board is the oldest 
in the field, and occupies European Turkey, 
Asia Minor, and eastern Turkey. The Pres- 
byterian Church (North) occupies Syria. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church has work in Bul- 
garia, the Reformed Presbyterians in northern 
Syria, and the Church Missionary Society occu- 
pies Palestine. These are the chief agencies 
at work, and count a total of 637 foreign mis- 
sionaries. Yet, according to the " Encyclopaedia 
of Missions," " the Church Missionary Society is 
the only one that has made a special effort to 
establish mission work distinctively for Moham- 
medans" ! 
indirect Until recent years the difficulties of the prob- 

Work i em an( j ^he terror of the Turk seem to have 

prevented direct work for Moslems, although 
by printing press, schools, colleges, and hos- 
pitals, many Mohammedans were reached indi- 
rectly and incidentally. 

" The missionaries have devoted a relatively small 
part of their time and strength to the Moslem work," 
writes Robert E. Speer. " In Egypt, Syria, Turkey and 
Persia the greater portion of the energy of the mission- 
aries has been devoted to work for Copts, Maronites, 
Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Nestorians. Apart from 
the schools (and the number of Mohammedan pupils in 
schools in Turkey is almost inconsiderably small), com- 
paratively little has been done. Through medical mis- 
sionaries many have been made accessible, and some 
have been reached, but we do not have and have not 
had for years a systematic and aggressive, though tactful 
and quiet campaign for the evangelization of Moslems." 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 93 

The early ideals of direct work for Moslems, Early ideals 
as held by Smith, Perkins, Grant, Pfander, and 
others, seem to have been lost sight of, or more 
probably they were crushed by the political 
restrictions and continued persecutions in Tur- 
key; nevertheless, a world of work has been ac- 
complished in the face of tremendous difficulty 
and determined opposition for the future evan- 
gelization, of Moslems. 

" Protestant missions have given the entire population Results 
the Bible in their own tongue ; have trained hundreds To-day 
of thousands of readers; published thousands of useful 
books ; awakened a spirit of inquiry ; set in motion edu- 
cational institutions in all the sects of all parts of the 
Empire, compelling the enemies of education to become 
its friends, and the most conservative of orientals to de- 
vote mosque and convent property to the founding of 
schools of learning. They have broken the fetters of 
womanhood. . . . Every evangelical church is a living epis- 
tle to the Mohammedans with regard to the true nature of 
original apostolic Christianity. Encouraged by the spirit 
of reform and modern progress, even the Mohammedan 
doctors of Constantinople have issued orders that all edi- 
tions of old Mohammedan authors which recount the 
fabulous stories of Moslem saints and Welys are to be 
expurgated or suppressed and not to be reprinted." 1 

As a single striking example, among hun- The Arabic 
dreds, of this work for Moslem evangelization, Blble 
take the Arabic version of the Scriptures by 
Drs. Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck. This 
arduous task was begun in 1848 and not finally 
completed until 1865. The completion of this 
matchless version marked an epoch in missions 

1 Dr. H. H. Jessup in the "Encyclopaedia of Missions," 
p. 757. 



94 



MOSLEM LANDS 



for the Mohammedan world greater than any 
accession or deposition of sultans. That Bible 
made modern missions to Arabia, Egypt, Tunis, 
Tripoli, and the Arabic-speaking world possible. 
For an excellent account of all " the Chris- 
tian forces now at work in the Turkish Em- 
pire," see the article with this title in the 
Missionary Review of the World for October, 
1901, by Dr. Edward Riggs. He concludes 
that — 

Present " The Christian forces now at work are not at present 

Conditions in any sense arrayed against Mohammedanism. The 
attitude of the state religion would not tolerate that. 
During the Crimean War the Turkish government was 
so deeply indebted to the Christian powers of Western 
Europe that there came about a considerable relaxation 
of the rigidity of this attitude. Religious discussion 
was very free between Mohammedans and Christians. 
It was to be heard openly in the market-places and on 
the Bosphorus steamers. Preaching-places were opened 
for the presentation of the Gospel to Mohammedans, 
with some small net results. But this could not long 
continue, and private persecution was later followed up 
by an ill-disguised attitude of fanaticism on the part of 
the authorities. This spirit of haughty intolerance has 
been steadily growing for a quarter of a century, and 
renders practically impossible all effort to influence Mo- 
hammedans in favor of Christianity." 

If this is true, how much more urgent is the 
call to prayer. All things are possible with God. 
Arabia Arabia the Cradle of Islam. — Except for the 

small colony of Sabeans on the Euphrates, and 
the Jews of Bagdad, Busrah, and Yemen, all 
Arabia is Mohammedan. With an area of over 
one million square miles and four thousand 



THE STOBY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 95 

miles of coast, the population is about eight Political 
millions. Three-fourths of Arabia is under Divis* 011 
independent rulers, many of them under Brit- 
ish protection. The remainder belongs, at least 
nominally, to Turkey. Although Christianity 
flourished in Arabia before Mohammed's time, 
the form of the faith w$s not pure enough to 
be permanent, and the Arabian Christians, as 
far as we know, did not have the Bible in their 
own tongue. 

Mohammed's dying injunction was that his 
native country might be inhabited solely by 
" believers," and it was rigorously enforced in 
the caliphate of Omar. Even before his death, 
the Christians of Arabia had, through force 
or gain of worldly goods, become apostate. 
Wright says, " Whether any Christians were 
left in the peninsula at the death of Moham 
med, may be reasonably doubted." This was 
in 632 a.d. From that date until the day of Long Neg- 
Keith Falconer, the whole of Arabia was utterly, lect 
continuously, and inexplicably neglected by the 
Church of Christ in its work of evangelization. 
The false prophet held undisputed sway in the 
whole peninsula. 

The story of Ion Keith Falconer's life is Keith Fai- 
well known. He was, in the true sense of coner 
the word, the pioneer missionary of Arabia 
(for the Roman Catholic mission, founded at 
Aden, in 1840, was not intended to reach the 
Arabs, and even now confines its efforts to 
the mixed population of Steamer Point). 
Keith Falconer called attention to the neg- 



96 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Mackay's 
Appeal 



The Re- 
sponse 



lected Arabs by the appeals of his voice and 
pen and the sacrifice of his life. Being dead, 
he yet speaks to all Christendom of that vast 
region " shrouded in almost utter darkness," 
whose " millions suffer the horrors of Islam," 
and pleads for Arabia. The mission so nobly 
begun has been faithfully continued bj^ the 
Free Church of Scotland, but, from lack of 
laborers, the work has not yet extended beyond 
Sheikh Othman (Aden) except through the 
potent influence of their hospital. 

The Danish Evangelical Church has recently 
sent out missionaries who cooperate with the 
Scotch Mission at Sheikh Othman and plan to 
occupy some other station. 

From Usambiro, Central Africa, Alexander 
M. Mackay, 1888, sent forth his remarkable 
appeal for a mission to the Arabs of Oman. 
It was the trumpet-call to duty for the aged 
Bishop French. After thirty-seven years of 
mission labor in India, he resigned his bishop- 
ric at Lahore, "moved by an inexpressible 
desire to preach to the Arabs." He arrived at 
Muscat on February 9, 1891, and died on May 
14 of the same year. His plans never reached 
execution, and he never reached the interior, the 
goal of his desires. But the few months he spent 
at Muscat were full of the work of faith and the 
patience of hope, as well as the labor of love 
in wonderful self-denial. Was it to shame the 
Church that a lonely, aged man was permitted 
to raise the King's banner in response to Mac- 
kay's plea, and to die in doing it ? 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 97 

The Arabian Mission of the Reformed Church The Arabian 
in America (1890) occupies Busrah, Bahrein, and ^s^ 011 
Muscat on the Persian Gulf. It was at Busrah 
that Kamil Abd el Messiah, a Moslem convert 
of the Syrian mission, laid down his life in 
earnest witness for the truth. He was the first 
Mohammedan convert who preached Christ to 
the Arabs of Hadramaut and East Arabia. 
Beyond Busrah this mission has out-stations 
at Nasariyeh and Amara northward, and at 
Nachl in Oman. 

Bahrein was entered in 1892, and offers 
splendid opportunities because of the great 
freedom enjoyed. It now has a hospital, a 
chapel, and school building. Muscat station 
owes its start and early development to the 
devotion, practical energy, and patient endur- 
ance of Peter John Zwemer. Alone he pene- Peter J. 
trated far inland to plant the banner, which Zwemer 
fell from the dead hand of Bishop French, on 
the heights of Jebel Achdar. In the face of 
stupendous difficulties and a most trying cli- 
mate, he persevered in holding the fort, while 
appealing in vain for the sinews of war and a 
comrade in arms. He translated a tract for Mos- 
lems, set it up in type, and struck off on a hand- 
press, turned by one of his band of rescued slave 
lads, the first Christian leaflet ever printed in 
Arabia. The school for rescued slaves was the 
outcome of his individual effort and enterprise. 
Worn out by fevers and six years of toil, he went 
on furlough ; after a wearisome journey and 
three months in the hospital at New York, 



98 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Other Wit- 
nesses 



Open Doors 
in Persia 



ever looking forward to recovery and to further 
service in Arabia with patient expectancy (so 
unwilling was he to lay off the harness), he fell 
asleep on October 18, 1898. 

In addition to those named, Arabia holds as a 
heritage of promise the graves of other American 
missionaries : George E. Stone, Harry Wiersum, 
Dr. Marion Wells Thorns, and Mrs. Jessie Vail 
Bennett. The Arabian Mission of the Reformed 
Church in America, organized in 1889, now has 
nineteen missionaries on the field, with twenty 
native helpers. There have been converts and 
baptisms, but the full harvest is not yet, although 
the work is encouraging, and doors are opening 
into the interior. 

Missions in Persia. — In many respects Persia 
presents a weak point for our conquest of Islam. 
The Persians themselves are sectarians and the 
enemies of the orthodox school of Islam ; Per- 
sia has always been Aryan rather than Semitic 
in its thought, and therefore is more tolerant and 
willing to discuss religious matters ; and in no 
Moslem land are there so many sects and schools 
of thought, rationalists and mystics. Add to 
this that Persia has for the last fifty years been 
convulsed by the new religion of the Bab and 
its daughter faith, Behaism — both halfway stop- 
ping-places toward Christianity, or away from 
it. 

Persia has an area of 648,000 square miles and 
a population of 9,500,000. Of these, 8,800,000 
are Moslems. 

After the pioneer journey of Henry Martyn 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 99 

and the work of Pfander and his associates, 
Frederick Haas, another German missionary, 
came to Tabriz in 1833, and in 1838 Dr. William 
Glenn, a Scottish missionary, began the transla- 
tion of the Old Testament into Persian, thus 
completing the work begun by Henry Martyn. 
In 1869, Rev. Robert Bruce, D.D., located at Kobert 
Ispahan and awakened a deep interest in the Bruce 
evangelization of Persia, so that in 1876 the 
Church Missionary Society opened a station 
at Julfa, a suburb of Ispahan. The wonderful 
growth of this mission in one man's lifetime is 
thus described in the Church Missionary Re- 
vieiv : — 

" "When Bishop Stuart went to Julfa in 189-1 that was Wonderful 
the only Church Missionary Society station in the Shah's Success 
dominions, and it was an Armenian station outside the 
Moslem citadel, Now Ispahan itself is occupied, and so 
are Yezd and Kirman and Shiraz, all ancient and impor- 
tant cities, and there are bands of converts in all of them. 
Over a hundred adult converts have been baptized in 
Persia since the new century commenced. In Ispahan 
last Christmas Day some sixty converts knelt together at 
the Lord's Supper, a sight to cheer the heart indeed, 
to see converts from Mohammedanism, Babism, and 
Parsiism, kneeling side by side with Armenians and 
Europeans and receiving the tokens of the Saviour's 
dying love. 

" Dr. Carr, who has just come home from Ispahan, tells 
the committee how the workers are cheered by the evi- 
dent signs of reality and depth of conviction in the con- 
verts, especially the women. They have borne the most 
deadly persecution, and they show a readiness to bear 
the loss of all things in loyalty to Christ. Moslem oppo- 
sition is yielding before Christian benevolence, and the 
medical mission is now not only a tolerated institution in 



100 MOSLEM LANDS 

Ispahan, where the work was a few years since so bitterly- 
opposed, but it is welcomed. Mohammedans themselves 
subscribe nearly £100 a year toward its up-keep, and gave 
lately a further £200 to extend the hospital buildings, 
the land on which they stand having been provided by a 
leading Mohammedan." 

The Ameri- In 1827 Dr. Joseph Wolf visited Persia, and 
can Mission as a resu it f hi s writings the American Board 
determined to begin work among the Nestorians. 
In 1834 Rev. J. L. Merrick went out under the 
same Board and attempted work among Mos- 
lems, but the way was not open. For many 
years the work of the American missionaries 
was chiefly among the Nestorians. In 1871 this 
mission came under the Presbyterian Board, and 
in more recent years there has been work also 
among Moslems. Some have professed Christ 
openly and several have suffered martyrdom, 
among them Mirza Ibrahim. 1 

In Eastern Persia this mission occupies Te- 
heran, Kazvin, Resht, and Hamadan, with many 
out-stations ; in Western Persia, Urumia and 
Tabriz. The report of the mission for 1906 
contains some very interesting accounts of 
evangelistic work among Moslems. It is the 
day of opportunity in Persia, and there is cry- 
ing need for reinforcements. 
Moslem Work for Moslems in India. — The study of 

India missions in India, " Lux Christi," has so well 

covered the general work of missions that a 
brief summary of work among Mohammedans 

!See sketch of his life in Robert E. Speer's " Men who 
Overcame." 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 101 

must suffice here. Henry Martyn was the fore- 
runner of many other missionaries in India who 
endeavored to give the Gospel to the Moslem as 
well as to the Hindu. The Scriptures were Work of 
translated into Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Kash- Pre P aration 
miri, Sinclhi, and Baluchi to reach every Moslem 
tongue of India. A large vernacular literature 
specially suited to Moslems was prepared. And 
through hospitals, schools, colleges, and itinerant 
preaching, many Mohammedans were reached. 
Some societies have made special effort in this 
direction, among them the Church Missionary 
Society, the American Presbyterian Missions in 
North India, and the Australian Baptist Mission. 

In more recent years a few missionaries have 
been set apart specially by their societies for this 
important work, as it has become evident that 
the successful worker among Moslems must 
know Arabic and the Koran. But on the whole, 
even in India, the Mohammedans have been 
neglected more than any other race or religion 
among its millions of people. This is evident 
from the literature of missions on India, which 
often gives scant notice of the Mohammedan 
problem; but it is even more evident from the 
fact that there are so few societies or mission- 
aries that give themselves wholly to this work. 
Is there not a call to-day for a special mission The Present 
or special mission work on a large scale to reach CaU 
the largest Mohammedan population in any land 
— 62,458,077 souls — larger than that of all 
Mohammedan Africa ? 

The results of work for Moslems have been 



102 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Indian Con- 
verts 



considerable. Indirectly the whole attitude of 
Islam toward Christianity has changed. The 
literati have abandoned controversial positions 
once thought impregnable, and thousands are 
studying the Scriptures. And there have been 
many converts. 

" The accessions from Islam," says Dr. Wherry, "espe- 
cially in northern India, have been continuous during all 
the years since the death of Henry Martyn. One here 
and another there has been added to the Christian 
Church, so that now as one looks over the rolls of 
Church membership, he is surprised to find so many 
converts from Islam, or the children and children's chil- 
dren of such converts. In the North, especially in the 
Punjab, and the Northwest Frontier Province, every con- 
gregation has a representation from the Moslem ranks. 
Some of the churches have a majority of their member- 
ship gathered from among the Moslems. In a few cases 
there has been something like a movement among Mos- 
lems towards Christianity, and a considerable number 
have come out at one time. But perhaps the fact which 
tells most clearly the story of the advance of Christianity 
among Moslems in India is this, that among the native 
pastors and Christian preachers and teachers in North 
India, there are at least two hundred who were once 
followers of Islam. " 



The East 
Indies 



Gospel Triumphs in the Dutch East Indies. — 
It has been well said that "the Moslem propa- 
ganda has accomplished its masterpiece in the 
East Indies." Entering this region only four 
hundred years ago, the result is that out of a 
total population in Java of twenty-eight and a 
half million, twenty-four and a quarter million 
once heathen have become Moslems. And in 
Sumatra, among its four million inhabitants, 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 103 

three and a half million profess the religion 
of Islam. Similar conditions exist, or would 
soon have existed in Celebes, Borneo, and the 
other islands, had Christian missions not en- 
tered and raised barriers to the Moslem con- 
quest. Yet it is on these very islands, Java Signal Tri- 
and Sumatra, that the most signal triumphs um P hs 
of the Gospel have been won among Moslems 
and the greatest number of converts gathered 
into the Church of Christ. 

The population of the entire Malay Archi- 
pelago is equal to that of South America, yet 
there are few parts of the world less known to 
the average student of missions. The records 
of the trials and triumphs here are largely 
locked up in the Dutch and German languages, 
for the most populous islands are Dutch posses- 
sions, and the work is mostly carried on by their 
societies and those of Germany. 

Sumatra and Java are the principal and the Sumatra 
typical fields of work for Moslems in Malay- 
sia. A Baptist missionary reached Sumatra as 
early as 1820, and in 1834 Munson and Lyman 
went out under the American Board, but were 
brutally murdered. The Rhenish Missionary 
Society entered the field in 1861 and has had 
marvellous success. Other societies from the 
Netherlands also labor on the island. Dr. 
Schreiber, the Inspector of the Rhenish Mis- 
sion, says, " I do not know if there is any other 
part of the mission field, with the exception of 
some parts of Java, where such large numbers 
of Mohammedans have been won for Christ as 



104 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Borneo 



Hester 
Needham 



among the Battaks of Sumatra." The attitude 
of the Dutch government, which was once bit- 
terly hostile or critically neutral, has, in recent 
years, greatly changed, and is now favorable to 
missions. In Sumatra the issue between Chris- 
tianity and Islam was boldly faced from the 
outset; there was neither fear nor compromise 
in mission methods, and this, together with con- 
siderable freedom to preach, perhaps accounts 
for the great success in winning converts. 

A mutiny in Borneo was the means of start- 
ing this wonderful mission among the Battak 
people. In May, 1859, heathen Dyaks, incited 
and led by Mohammedan fanatics, attacked 
the Borneo mission, killing seven missionaries, 
several children, and destroying schools and 
churches. Four little children from one mis- 
sionary's home were taken captive to the jungle 
and treated cruelly, but afterward ransomed. 
The survivors of the mission left for Sumatra 
and began work among heathen and Moham- 
medans there with many early hardships, but 
finally with great success. 

Hester Needham, the Saint of Sumatra, was 
one of those who "made up that which was 
behind of the sufferings of Jesus Christ " for 
His elect among the Mohammedans. The story 
of her life is like that of Henry Martyn, Allen 
Gardiner, or David Brainerd. Her letters and 
diaries glow with love for souls and show 
clear evidence that she walked with God. Her 
foreign missionary labor began when she heard 
of " a place in Sumatra where for forty years 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 105 

the heathen had been asking for a missionary, 
and none have gone, and now the Mohamme- 
dans are going, but no missionary for Christ." 
This was her call, and she at once went to Ger- 
many to offer herself to the Barmen Mission. 

She entered upon the work among the Bat- A Noble 
taks of Sumatra at the age of forty-six, and for Llfe 
eight years she labored there. Then, from a 
life of arduous toil, in the teeth of extreme 
physical suffering and debility, she entered her 
eternal rest on May 12, 1897, in her own words, 
" Thankful to stay, but delighted to go." 

Money, social position, and gifts, and even a 
sphere of great usefulness she forsook, knowing 
that her place could be supplied, and at an age 
when many consider their working days over, 
and already suffering from spinal complaint, 
she braved a life of incessant hardship and 
humiliation, in a trying climate. 1 

In Sumatra the Rhenish Mission now has Results 
6500 converted Moslems, 1150 catechumens, 80 
churches, 5 native pastors, 70 lay preachers, 
while they baptized 153 Mohammedans in 1906. 
In the district of Si Perok, a Christian convert 
from Islam has become chief in place of a 
Mohammedan. 

Java is the richest and largest of Dutch j ava 
colonial possessions. Six Dutch missionary 
societies labor on the island, which has a dense 
population of 28,746,688; of these, 24,270,600 
are Moslems. Surely a large and difficult 

1 " A Saint in Sumatra," Missionary Review of the World, 
January, 1900. 



106 MOSLEM LANDS 

field. Yet by preaching, the sale of Scriptures, 
and medical work, great numbers have been 
won to Christ. The work in Sumatra is a 
miracle of missions, but in Java there have 
been still greater numerical results. Accord- 
ing to latest statistics, there are now living in 
Java over 18,000 who have been converted to 
Christianity from Islam, and the converts from 
Islam amount to between 300 and 400 adults 
every year. 1 
Results Although living in the larger coast cities, the 

missionaries have succeeded in organizing many 
churches in the interior of the island for Mos- 
lems. The average number of missionaries for 
the past twenty-five years who devote all their 
attention to the Mohammedans was only about 
twenty for this island. Surely God's rich bless- 
ing has rested on their labors in giving so abun- 
dant a harvest, and these miracles of grace 
prove that the Gospel is the power of God unto 
salvation to the Mohammedan as well as to the 
heathen world. 

HELPS FOR LEADERS 
Lesson Aim : 

To make vivid the long and general neglect of the 
Church, and the work of preparation now accomplished ; 
to show also that work for Moslems, though difficult, is 
not hopeless. 
Scripture Lesson : 

Ps. 2; 1 Sam. 17:4-11; 41-50. 
Suggestive Questions : 

1. Trace Raymund Lull's missionary journeys on 
the map. 

i "The Mohammedan World of To-day," p. 237. 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 107 

2. In what sense were the Crusades a missionary 
movement ? 

3. Give an account of Henry Martyn's last journey 
through Persia. 

4. What influence has Robert College exerted on 
Turkish Mohammedanism ? 

5. Give the story of the Arabic Bible translation. 

6. Give the story of Bishop French at Muscat. 

7. Name all the missionary societies laboring in 
Persia and Arabia. 

8. Who was Imad-ud-Din? Mirza Ibrahim? Kamil? 

9. What are the opportunities for medical work in 
Turkey? 

10. Where are the chief mission printing-presses for 
the Mohammedan World located ? 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Herbert Birk's "Life and Correspondence of Bishop 
T. V. French." London, 1895. 2 vols. 

H. H. Jessup, " The Setting of the Crescent and the 
Rising of the Cross, or Kamil Abd ul Messiah." Phila- 
delphia, 1898. 

Robert Sinker, " Memorial of Ion Keith Falconer." 
Cambridge, 1886. 

George Smith, " Life of Henry Martyn, Scholar and 
Saint, First Modern Missionary to the Moslems." 

W. A. Essery, " The Ascending Cross : Some Results 
of Missions in Bible Lands, 1854-1904." The Religious 
Tract Society, London, 1905. 

Andrew Watson, " The American Mission in Egypt." 
Pittsburg, Penn., 1897. 

Cyrus Hamlin, "My Life and Times." New York, 
1893. 

H. O. Dwight, " Constantinople and its Problems." 

CharlCs R. Watson, "Egypt and the Christian Cru- 
sade." Philadelphia, 1907. 

E. M. Wherry, " Islam and Christianity in India and 
the Far East." * New York, 1907. 



108 MOSLEM LANDS 

Samuel G. Wilson, " Persian Life and Customs." New 
York, 1895. 

James L. Barton and others, " The Mohammedan 
World of To-day." New York, 1906. 

Annie Van Sommer, "Our Moslem Sisters." (A Sym- 
posium.) New York, 1907. 

J. Rutherford and E. H. Glenny, " The Gospel in 
North Africa." London, 1900. 

Mary R. S. Bird, " Persian Women and their Creed." 
C. M. S., London, 1899. 

S. M. Zwemer, " Eaymund Lull: First Missionary to 
the Moslems." New York, 1905. (Funk and Wagnalls.) 
"Arabia the Cradle of Islam." New York, 1900. (Be- 
vell.) "Islam: A Challenge to Faith." NewYork, 1907. 
(S.Y.M.) 

ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS 

A Human Document 

Dear Editor : — I have read with astonishment your 
leading article in the Egyptian Gazette of the 7th iust. 
on "Missions to Mohammedans," in which you conclude 
that Egypt's great need is not religion but sanitation. I 
don't want to enter into a controversy with you, but 
would like to tell you in a few words my own experience 
as a Moslem. I was a strict follower of the religion of 
Islam, and was educated thoroughly in all its precepts, and 
that in lands where no other religion is known or taught, 
the Hadramaut and the Yemen. Eventually I became 
Kadi al Islam, and so zealous was I, that not only did I 
observe all that was imposed upon me by the Koran, but 
many things in addition, such as the pilgrimage to 
Medina, the opening of my house to all Moslem strangers, 
the spending of many of the nights of Ramadan in prayer 
and reading of the Koran, and the supplying of the wants 
of the poor to the utmost of my ability. 

All that I did, in order to find peace with God and rest 
for my soul ; but the only result was increased fear and 
trouble of conscience, till I could find no pleasure in any- 
thing. I thought that this state must arise from our neg- 
lecting, as Moslems, the sacred duty imposed upon us by 



THE STORY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 109 

our religion, of waging war against the unbelievers, and 
as I had not the power to do that, I tried to make amends 
for it by hating them with all my heart, till I could hardly 
bear the sight of a Christian. 

And so I remained without hope and without rest, 
until, coming to Aden, I met a friend who had a very dif- 
ferent feeling towards me and my fellow-Moslems from 
what you have. Having tasted the joy and blessing of a 
living Saviour, he was anxious that all the world should 
know Him too ; for the Christian religion differs from all 
other religions in the world in this, that it consists in the 
knowledge of a person, a living person, and not in the 
holding of dogmas and creeds. He preached to me Jesus, 
and I believed in Him as my Saviour, and found peace. It 
meant that I lost everything, that my name was defamed, 
my life attempted, and I became a poor outcast and 
wanderer from my native land. Everybody forsook me, 
and I have been at times without bread to eat, but in the 
midst of it all my heart has been full of joy and love to 
God and all men, especially my own people. 

I am afraid, dear sir, from your article, that you know 
not yet in your heart the presence of this Saviour, or you 
would have a better Gospel to preach than the gospel of 
sanitation. Is it possible that I, the poor Moslem, have 
entered into the Kingdom of Heaven before you, the 
learned citizen of a Christian nation ? even as He said of 
old to the Pharisees, "the publicans and harlots shall 
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before you." 

Yours sincerely, 

Salem El Khamry. 

Suez, February 9, 1905. 

" Who being Dead yet Speaketh." 

" While vast continents are shrouded in almost utter dark- 
ness^ and hundreds of millions suffer the horrors of heathen- 
ism and of Islam, the burden of proof rests on you to show 
that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant 
by God to keep you out of the foreign field " — Ion Keith 
Falconer, Cambridge University Scholar and Pioneer 
Missionary in Arabia. 



110 MOSLEM LANDS 



The Old Argument of Force at Cairo 

"Mr. Michael Mansoor, a convert from Mohammedan- 
ism, who is in the service of our mission, and who has 
been doing most acceptable work among Moslems, was 
attending, by invitation, a Mohammedan literary society. 
At the invitation of the president of the society, he gave a 
brief address, praising the object of the society. There 
were about a thousand present. He concluded his ad- 
dress with a few verses of poetry of his own composition, 
at which he was loudly cheered. He was scarcely seated 
when a sheikh of the Azhar, the Mohammedan University 
of Cairo, jumped to his feet and commenced speaking, 
immediately bringing up the subject of religion, praising 
Islam and making invidious comparisons with Christian- 
ity. When he sat down, Mr. Mansoor leaned over and 
whispered in his ear that if circumstances permitted, he 
would not hesitate to reply. 

"The sheikh then arose, and repeated in the hearing 
of the audience what Mr. Mansoor had whispered to him. 
Then Mr. Mansoor arose and made an explanation, saying 
that this society is not for the discussion of religious ques- 
tions, but if the sheikh wished to discuss with him any of 
these subjects, he might come to the hall of the American 
Mission on Monday night, when and where there were 
such discussions. The sheikh invited every person he 
met for the following four days, without our missionaries 
having any suspicion of what was being concocted. 

"On the following Monday, before the hour for the 
meeting had fully arrived, a crowd had gathered at the 
mission building. The doors of the chapel were opened, 
and the room was soon packed, with men standing and 
sitting in the windows; the platform was packed as well. 
Still they came, pressing in and crowding upon one an- 
other, so that those who had occupied the seats got up and 
stood on them. They broke in the back door of the court 
and filled the court behind ; there must have been at least 
one thousand people. 

"It was manifestly impossible to keep such a crowd 
quiet, and they were in no mood for a calm religious dis- 



THE STOBY OF MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 111 

cussion. The missionaries realized that for Mr. Mansoor 
to attempt his usual meeting would doubtless occasion a 
riot. The word was passed that a meeting, under the 
circumstances, was impossible. But the audience was in 
no mood to leave, and mauy still pressed in. Appeal to 
the police was also without avail. 

"At length, weary of waiting, and finding no prospect of 
a meeting, one after another, they left. The room was 
found quite the worse for the incident: benches broken, 
seats scratched and smeared with mud. The entire inci- 
dent was a display of usual Moslem tactics. The crowd 
had come determined to win, if not by argument, then 
by display of force. ..." — Rev. C. R. Watson in The 
United Presbyterian, February 15, 1906. 

A Good Foundation for a Bible House 

" When the foundations of the Bible House at Constan- 
tinople were laid, the removal of the surface soil revealed* 
the broken walls of a Christian church built on that site 
fourteen hundred years ago. Upon the foundations of 
that ancient church edifice rests a part of the Bible House 
walls to-day. The site is holy ground, consecrated by 
the prayers of the Christians of that sixth century, which 
sent its missionaries to heathen Britain in the West, and 
to Central Asia and China in the East. Is it an acci- 
dent, think you, that after all these years the prayers 
offered in that old church for the coming of the King- 
dom have begun to be answered by the establishment 
again of witnesses for Jesus Christ upon this very spot? 
There are no accidents in God's administration of His 
Kingdom. Then the missionary century of the hoary 
past joins its plea to the present missionary century for 
Christians everywhere to rally to the effective endow- 
ment of this mission publishing work, which is rooted 
in the broad principles of Jesus Christ himself, even as 
its material habitation is established upon the rock-like 
foundations for Christian service laid by the earliest colo- 
nies of his followers in this city." 

— Rev. Henry O. Dwight, LL.D. 



The Moslem Beggar 

[Note. — Poor destitute men, many of them deprived of 
their eyes as punishment for law-breaking, infest the towns 
of Morocco and other lands of the East. Their common cry 
is " Ya Mai Allah," " Give me what belongs to God I "J 

" In shadow of a crumbling mosque he stands, 
An aged mendicant with want outworn, 

Eyes from their shrunken sockets ruthless torn, 
For crimes in lawless youth, — for so demands 

The cruel Moslem code. With trembling hands 
Outheld for aid he only lives to mourn, 
Till kindly Death beyond the earthly bourne 

Shall carry him at last, and loose his bands. 

" To motley crowds that careless come and go 
He murmurs, * Give me what belongs to God.' 
That cry proclaims the debt that Christians owe 
His country where Mohammed's legions trod, 
And with the sword their creed unholy spread, 
Robbing her children of the Living Bread." 

— S. S. McCurrYo 



112 



CHAPTER IV 

THE WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 

The Unoccupied Fields. — In the previous Unoccupied 
chapters we have seen something of the work Fields 
of missions for Mohammedans direct and in- 
direct in lands like Egypt, Turkey, Persia, 
India, Sumatra, and Java, where for many years 
the Moslem populations have, more or less, 
come in contact with the missions. These 
lands and others more recently entered may, in 
a sense, be considered occupied. Yet there is 
not a single one of them where the total 
number of laborers is in any sense adequate 
for the work of evangelization. Even in 
Egypt, for example, only a small fraction of 
the Moslem population is reached in any way 
by the Gospel. 

In Turkey, where there are many missionary 
agencies at work, the bulk of the Mohammedan 
population is either inaccessible or neglected. 
And even in India, where there is an open India 
door to 62,000,000 Moslems, the number of 
those specially qualified and set apart for work 
among them is altogether too few. 

Aside, however, from the vast work that 

remains to be done in these lands, in which 

the strategic centres of population are already 

mission stations, and whose territory has been 

i 113 



114 MOSLEM LANDS 

divided among various societies by the laws 
of comity, there are lands wholly untouched 
or almost entirely unreached by the Gospel. 
These unoccupied lands and regions are those 
where nothing has yet been done, and where 
there are neither mission stations nor mission 
workers. 
Our Watch- In our study of missions we must never for- 
get that " the evangelization of the world in 
this generation," which has become the battle- 
cry of missions, is an impossible ideal unless 
these unoccupied fields, hitherto utterly neg- 
lected, are entered and evangelized. The field 
is the world. Therefore the perfect cultivation 
of one section, however large or important, to 
the neglect of other corners of the field, cannot 
be the fulfilment of the will of the Great Hus- 
bandman. 
Darkest Darkest Africa. — The darkest part of Africa 

Africa to-day is Mohammedan Africa and those great 

border-marches of Islam where paganism is 
rapidly and surely giving way before the 
Moslem advance. In the point of numbers, 
Mohammedanism claims thirty-six per cent of 
Africa's population, or 58,864,587 souls out of 
a total population of 163,736,683. 

Of this Mohammedan population, the over- 
whelming majority, or 54,790,879, are to be 
found north of the equator. Of these, again, 
two-fifths, roughly speaking, are north of 
twenty degrees north latitude, and three-fifths 
are south of that latitude. 

"While in actual numbers there are more 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE BONE 115 

Mohammedans between the latitude indicated 
and the equator than north of that latitude, 
yet, in proportion to the population of the 
countries involved, Mohammedanism is far Islam's 
stronger north of twenty degrees north lati- stron g hold 
tude; for, north of this latitude, the Moham- 
medans constitute ninety-one per cent of the 
population, while between twenty degrees 
north latitude and the equator, the Moham- 
medan population is only forty-two per cent." 

If these statistics, given by Dr. Charles R. 
Watson at the Cairo Conference, are compared 
with a map of mission stations in Africa, we 
find that the centres of light are " like a little 
candle burning in the night " of Islam. So 
few and far between are the points occupied. 

" Taking the parallel of latitude that would touch the A Great 
northern bend of the Niger as the northern limit, and Need 
that which would touch the northern bend of the Congo 
as the southern limit, and modifying these boundaries at 
either side of the continent so as to omit the mission 
stations on the West Coast and on the upper courses of 
the Nile, we find a territory about equal to that of the 
United States, and far more densely populated, without 
a single representative of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
With a mission station just established by the United 
Presbyterians of America on the Sobat River, of the 
Upper Nile basin, and with stations opened by the 
Church iMissionary Society and the United Sudan Mis- 
sion in the Niger basin, 1500 miles to the west, the situa- 
tion presented is as if the United States, with her 85,000,000 
of people, had one missionary in Maine and another in 
Texas and no Gospel influence between." * 

1 Naylor's "Unoccupied Mission Fields in Africa," The 
Missionary Beviexo, March, 1906. 



116 



MOSLEM LANDS 



The Sudan 



Growth of 
Islam 



The Call of the Sudan. — The great central 
and thickly peopled Sudan is one of the most 
needy fields in the world, and only the merest 
beginnings have been made in its evangelization. 
According to Professor Beach, " we have here 
a population numbering two-thirds that of the 
United States who cannot by any possibility 
reach a Protestant Mission Station." Taken 
in its widest extent, this " Country of the 
Blacks," for that is the Arabic meaning of the 
name, includes almost a fourth of the continent 
both as to area and population. 

And the problem in all this vast region is to- 
day the problem of Islam. Hear the testimony 
of the Rev. J. Aitken: " When I came out in 
1898, there were few Mohammedans to be seen 
below Iddah. Now they are everywhere, ex- 
cepting below Abo, and at the present rate of 
progress there will scarcely be a pagan village 
on the river banks by 1910. Then we shall 
begin to talk of Mohammedan missions to these 
people, and any one who has worked in both 
heathen and Mohammedan towns knows what 
that means." 1 If Dr. Karl Kumm's estimates 
are trustworthy, this great destitute district 
of the Sudan, one of the most strategic and the 
most important unoccupied territories in the 
world, has a population of at least fifty millions. 
And yet less than a score of missionaries are 
found in the entire area. 

Ten of the fifteen great provinces have not 
one mission station or missionary. If a new 
1 "The Call of the Sudan," Missionary Review, January, 1907. 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 117 



worker was sent out every day, and each one 
took a parish of 10,000 people, it would take 
over sixteen years to occupy the Sudan. 

Dr. Karl Kumm gives the following summary The Situa- 
of these unoccupied fields: — 



tion 



The Land 


Size 


Government 


Missionaries 


Kordofan 


England 


British 


None 


Daffur 


France 


British 


None 


Wadai 


J Italy and 
[Ireland 


French 


None 








Bagirmi 


r Switzerland 

Holland 

« Belgium 

and 

Tasmania 


French 


None 


Kanem 


[Greece and 
L Denmark 


French 


None 








Adamawa 


f Turkey in 
L Europe 


German and 


None 




British 




Bornu 


England 


British 


None 


Sokoto 


Japan 


British 


5 C.M.S. Workers 


Gando 


f Scotland 
< and 
[Ireland 


British 


None 


Nupe 


Bulgaria 


British 


6 Canadian Workers 



Islam or Christ. — It is true that these countries 
are not wholly Moslem, but Islam is becoming 
more and more predominant in them all. And 
one point to be emphasized is that if the Church 
does not go now to these pagan tribes in Africa 
that are threatened with a more or less forced 
conversion to Islam, it will find the task of evan- 
gelizing them in the future a most difficult one. 



Islam or 
Christ 



118 MOSLEM LANDS 

After visiting the Sierra Leone Missions, 
Canon Smith writes : — 

" The . Christian Church in Africa needs to wake up 
and take alarm, if she would even hope to maintain a 
place in the Hinterland ! Everywhere you turn, be it on 
the byway or on the high road, you find the ' Mori ' men 
thrusting themselves among the people and gaining ad- 
herents. They gather together a few children and with 
the aid of wooden tablets, inscribed with Arabic sentences 
from the Koran, succeed in teaching these children the one 
great doctrinal ' fact ' of the Mohammedan faith. It is 
useless for Christians to try to weaken the effect of the 
warning by saying that these children do not understand 
what they are taught ; look to the net result, which is, 
that over the whole land determined Mohammedans are 
being made every day." 

Instead of the pliant pagan villager, with his 
grotesque idols and simple religion, there will 
be opposing us a people with their faith fixed 
on Mohammed's ability to save all his followers, 
and with fanatic hostility to the proclamation 
of Jesus as the one true God. 

The Moslem Peril in Africa. — It is for this 
reason that missionaries and students of mis- 
sions speak of a Mohammedan peril in the Dark 
Continent. Those who know of the conditions 
in West Africa, for example, say every effort 
should be made to forestall the entrance of 
Islam into the border-lands before this religion 
renders evangelization tenfold more difficult 
than it is among African pagans. In Western 
Africa, Islam and Christianity between them 
are spoiling heathenism, and will probably divide 
the pagan peoples in less than fifty years. 

Pastor F. Wurz, Secretary of the Basel Mis- 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE BONE 119 

sion, in a recent pamphlet speaks with dread of 
this Mohammedan aggression as a peril to the 
Native Church. He states that the situation on 
the Gold Coast is alarming. In one village a 
native preacher and his entire congregation went 
over to Islam. " Missions will scarcely be able 
to prevent the entrance of Islam among a single 
tribe, much less into large districts. Islam is 
spreading with the certainty and irresistibleness 
of a rising tide. The only question is whether ^owtobe 
it will still be possible for missions to organize ' 
Christian Churches, like breakwaters, able to 
resist the flood and outweather it, or whether 
everything will be carried away headlong." 

The Sudan United Mission calls the attention Hausa-land 
of Christendom to the present crisis in Hausa- 
land. All the heathen populations of the Cen- 
tral Sudan will go over to Islam unless the 
Church awakes to its opportunity. It is now or 
never ; it is Islam or Christ ! In other parts 
of Africa, the situation is one full of peril to the 
Native Church. This aspect of the problem 
was treated in a masterly paper, by Professor 
Carl Meinhof, of the University of Berlin, at a 
recent conference, under the title, "Do Missions 
to the Pagans of Africa Compel us to Carry on 
Work for the Moslems as well?" His argu- 
ment proves that every mission in Africa, north 
of the equator, will be compelled sooner or later 
to do direct work for Moslems or imperil its 
very existence. 

A writer in Uganda Notes gives the same 
testimony : — 



120 



MOSLEM LANDS 



" Egypt draws perceptibly nearer to Uganda. The most 
northerly station of the Uganda Mission at Condokoro, 
whither two Baganda evangelists were sent in February, 
is distant only one hundred and twelve miles from Bori, 
where the Sudan party are settled. Lower Egypt is a 
stronghold of Islam, and the followers of that religion are 
ever busy carrying their creed southward through Upper 
Egypt towards the confines of this Protectorate. Many 
of the Nile tribes have already embraced Islam, though 
the tribes to the north of our missions in Bunyoro are 
still heathen. If these tribes are left to accept Moham- 
medanism before the Gospel is carried to them, the diffi- 
culty of our work in these regions will undoubtedly be 
seriously enhanced. ... As far as Uganda is concerned, 
Islam is, of course, infinitely less a power than it once 
was, when, in the troublous early days of Christianity it 
threatened to overwhelm the combined heathen and 
Christian forces arrayed against it. But it is not only 
from the north that the followers of Islam are threaten- 
ing an invasion. 

" From the eastern side the railway has brought us into 
intimate association with coast influence ; Swahilis and 
Arabs coming up the line leave Islamism in their wake, 
for almost every Moslem is more or less of a missionary 
of his faith. Would that the same might be said of 
Christians ! Not a few Moslems are holding important 
positions in Uganda, while the larger number of those in 
authority in Busogo are, or were till quite recently, also 
Mohammedans. The followers of the false prophet have 
a great influence among the natives, which does not give 
promise of becoming less as time goes on. There is a dis- 
tinct danger of the Eastern Province becoming nominally 
Moslem before Christianity has made for itself a favorable 
impression on the minds of the people." 



Mohammedan Women in the Central Sudan. — 

Whether Islam is a blessing to Africa in ele- 
vating the pagan races to a higher level or is 
not, was once thought an open question. Un- 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 121 

doubtedly the entrance of Islam has in many- 
regions developed a desire for clothing and 
certain social comforts ; occasionally it has dis- 
couraged cannibalism, promoted personal clean- 
liness through its prayer ritual, and given the 
ability to read Arabic. But we must not leave How far it 
out of account the blighting influence of Islam clyillzes 
in its sensual teaching and the horrors of the 
slave traffic which has been the trade-mark of 
the system. Canon Taylor, Reclus, Thomson, 
and Blyden were strong advocates of the re- 
forming power of Islam, but equally strong and 
more competent authorities, like Livingstone, 
Stanley, Schweinfurth, and Burton, contradict 
their conclusions. The reason why Islam found 
favor among the Negro races was just because of 
its low moral standards. As a Moslem once 
said to a European : " You must not wear our 
clothes. They are given us of God to set forth 
the character of our religion, as yours set forth 
the character of your own. Our clothes are 
wide, easy, flowing ; so is our religion. We can 
steal, lie, commit adultery, and do as we wish, 
and our Prophet will make it all right for us at 
the last day. Your clothes are like your re- 
ligion : tight-fitting, narrow, and restraining." 

The condition of Mohammedan women in the a Hopeless 
Central Sudan is sufficient proof of the utter s y stem 
hopelessness of such religion for African woman- 
hood. We read the testimony of a missionary: 

" Social and moral evils, which may have a thin cloak 
thrown over them in the East as well as in those lands of 
Islam in the North of Africa, are openly and boldly un- 



122 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Cruelty- 



Darkest 
Asia 



covered in the Hausa States. The late Emir of Zaria was 
terribly severe to all his people, and cruel to a degree with 
any of his wives who transgressed in any way, or were 
suspected of unfaithfulness. In one instance in which a 
female slave had assisted one of his wives to escape, both 
being detected, the wife was immediately decapitated, and 
the slave given the head in an open calabash, and ordered 
by the Emir to fan the flies off it until next night ! 

" There is a very vicious and terribly degrading habit 
amongst the Hausas, which is known as 'Tsaranchi.' 
One cannot give in a word an English equivalent and 
one does not desire to describe its meaning. It has the 
effect of demoralizing most of the young girls and mak- 
ing it almost certain that very few girls of even eleven 
or twelve have retained any feelings of decency and 
virtue." l 

Such are some of the everyday conditions in 
the unoccupied Moslem lands of Africa. 

Darkest Asia. — Turning from darkest Africa 
to Asia, we find in this continent a situation 
hardly less needy and with even greater, be- 
cause more varied, opportunity. In Asia the 
following lands and areas of Moslem popula- 
tion are still wholly unreached: — 



Afghanistan 

Hejaz, Hadramaut, Nejd, and Hassa (Arabia) 

Southern Persia 

Russia in Caucasus 

Russia in Central Asia 

Bokhara 

Khiva 

Mindanao (Philippines) 

Siberia (East and West) 

China, unreached sections 



Estimated 
Moslem Population 
4,000,000 
3,500,000 
2,500,000 
2,000,000 
3,000,000 
1,250,000 
700,000 
250,000 
6,100,000 
20,000.000 



43,300,000 



lu Our Moslem Sisters," pp. 119, 121. 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 123 

These unevangelized millions in Asia, all of 
them under the yoke of Islam, are in some cases 
a rebuke for the neglect of the Church. Kafir- 
istan, one of the five provinces of Afghanistan, 
is a sad example : — 

" It was a sorrowful day for them, " writes Colonel G. Rebuke for 
Wingate, "when by a stroke of the pen in the British Neglect 
foreign office eleven years ago, their country was brought 
within the boundaries of Afghanistan. At last the 
Kafirs were the subjects of the Ameer. In consultation 
with Ghulam Haider, his commander-in-chief, he deter- 
mined to convert them and bring them into the fold of 
Islam. The distasteful offices of the mullah were offered 
at the muzzle of the breech-loader, the rites of the Mo- 
hammedan belief were enforced upon an unwilling peo- 
ple, mosques took the place of temples, the Koran and 
the traditions of the Caliphate would be the spiritual 
regeneration of the pagan Kafir. Yet twenty-five years 
ago a message from the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush stirred 
the Christian church ; they asked that teachers might 
be sent to instruct them in the religion of Jesus Christ. 
It is a sad example of how an opportunity may be lost, 
for to-day there is imposed between the ambassador for 
Christ and the eager Kafir the hostile aggression of a 
Mohammedan power intensely jealous of the entrance of 
the foreigner." 1 

Afghanistan and Baluchistan. — Although not 
at all the largest in area or in population, yet Af- 
ghanistan is of strategic importance among the 
unoccupied regions of Asia. It lies in the heart The Heart 
of the continent, the kernel of a vast Mos- ofAsia 
lem domain and the objective of foreign influ- 

1 " Unevangelized Regions in Central Asia," by Colonel G. 
Wingate, CLE., in the Missionary Review of the World, 
May, 1907. Kafiristan signifies " Land of unbelievers," and 
the name was given to the province by Moslems. 



124 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Strategic 
Location 



Area and 
Population 



ence from several quarters. On the west is 
Persia, with its copious language and polite peo- 
ple, influencing Afghanistan through its speech 
so that Persian has become the court language; 
during the progress of his tour in India the 
Amir made all his speeches in that language. 
On the east is Mohammedan India; on the 
south, Baluchistan; and on the north the classic 
Oxus divides Afghanistan from Russian Tur- 
kestan, with its millions of Mohammedans and 
the ancient city of Bokhara. To the celebrated 
Moslem schools of Bokhara, the youths of 
Kabul, Herat, and other cities of Afghanistan 
are sent to join the thousands of students who 
are receiving education. From its orthodox 
schools, teachers also have gone out to all parts 
of Asia to preach the very letter of the Koran. 
It will thus be seen that in the midst of Mo- 
hammedan Asia lies this mountainous country 
of Afghanistan, with a people who love to be 
free and yet show hospitality to the stranger. 

Having an area of 215,400 square miles and 
a population of about 4,000,000, but without a 
Christian missionary, surely this land is a chal- 
lenge to faith ! The door seems closed at present, 
and yet Colonel Wingate writes : 1 — 

" The Amir, on his recent tour in India, stated in his 
address to the students of the important Mohammedan 
College at Aligarh, that in his dominions there were re- 
siding Sunnis and Shiahs, Hindus, and Jews and others, 
to all of whom he had given full religious liberty, and he 
begged them not to give credence to the report that he 



1 In the Bombay Guardian, May 11, 1907. 



WOBK THAT BEMAINS TO BE BONE 125 

was a bigot. The time is perhaps opportune to commence 
a Medical Mission in North-Eastern Afghanistan, where 
the climate is suitable for Europeans, and the attitude 
of the people is favourable." 

Baluchistan is nominally a part of the Indian Baluchistan 
Empire, of which it forms the extreme western 
border. The northeastern part of the country 
is directly administrated by British officials 
and garrisoned by British troops. Another sec- 
tion is under native government, with British 
supervision, and a third part is inhabited by no- 
mad tribes. Out of a population of 1,050,000 
there are 995,000 Mohammedans. The only 
mission station in Baluchistan is at Quetta, 
where the Church Missionary Society has nine 
missionaries, men and women ; schools and a 
hospital. 

The social and moral conditions in Baluchis- 
tan, as well as in Afghanistan, are indescribable, 
as we have seen in a previous chapter. But the 
people are manj 7 of them Moslems in name only, 
and are willing to hear the Gospel if only 
there were messengers of the truth. 

In regard to the district of Khelat in Baluchis- Knelat 
tan, the Rev. A. D. Dixey testifies that the in- 
habitants are still only nominal Mohammedans, 
and not bigoted. " They will listen now, but 
in a few years they will have become fanatical." 

Neglected Arabia. — The cradle of Islam is Arabia 
still a challenge to Christendom, — a Gibraltar 
of fanaticism and pride that awaits the conquest 
of the Cross. The present missionary force 
in Arabia is utterly inadequate to supply the 



126 MOSLEM LANDS 

A Neglected needs even of that small portion of the field they 
Land have occupied. There are only four points on 

a coast of four thousand miles where there are 
resident missionaries. There is not a single 
missionary over twenty miles inland from this 
coast. No missionary has ever crossed the pen- 
insula in either direction. The total number of 
foreign missionaries in Arabia to-day is thirty- 
one, for a population of 8,000,000 souls. 

The Keith Falconer Mission is scarcely as 
strong in numbers as when Keith Falconer died. 
The Arabian Mission has only recently received 
enough reenforcement to man its three stations 
adequately and permanently. The only part 
of Arabia that is fairly well occupied is the 
River-country ; that is, the two vilayets of Bag- 
dad and Busrah. Here there are two stations 
and two out-stations on the rivers ; colporteurs 
and missionaries regularly visit the larger vil- 
lages ; several native workers are in regular 
employ, and the Bible Society is active. Yet 
in these two vilayets scarcely anything has yet 
been done for the large Bedouin population. 
Unoccupied Looking at Arabia by provinces : Hejaz has 
no missionary; Hadramaut has no missionary; 
Jebel Shammar and all the northern desert have 
no missionary; Nejd has no missionary ; Oman 
has two missionaries. Again, the following 
towns and cities are accessible, but have not one 
witness for Christ : Sana, Hodeidah, Menakha, 
Zebid, Damar, Taiz, Ibb, with forty smaller 
towns in Yemen ; Makallah, Shehr, and Shiban 
in Hadramaut ; Rastak, Someil, Sohar, Sur, Abu 



Provinces 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 127 

Thubi, Sharka, and other important towns in 
Oman ; not to speak of the important towns of 
Nejd and " the holy cities," Mecca and Medina, 
still closed to the Gospel. 

Arabia is in truth a neglected field, even now. 
Thus far the work has been largely preliminary ; 
the evangelization of Arabia is the goal; not 
until every province is entered and every one of 
the strategic points specified is occupied can we 
truly speak of Arabia as occupied. 

Russia and Bokhara. — These are also typical Russia 
cases of unoccupied fields and neglected millions 
in the Mohammedan world. The great empire 
of Russia, convulsed with social and religious 
unrest and in the throes of a new political birth, 
will soon be an empire of missionary opportunity 
and responsibility. Among its population of 
126,666,000 there are 13,889,000 Mohammedans, 
mostly in Asiatic Russia and Siberia. Mission 
work has been attempted at different times in 
different parts of the empire by the Moravians, 
the Basel Mission, the London Missionary Society, 
etc., but the attempts made were futile because 
of the repressive action of the Russian gov- 
ernment. The Bible societies, however, enjoy 
great freedom, have many privileges, and accom- 
plish much. There is little special work done 
for the Mohammedans. 

Bokhara is a Russian dependency in Central Bokhara 
Asia, with a population of over a million, nearly 
all Turkish Mohammedans. There are no es- 
tablished missions in the country, and no for- 
eigner is allowed entrance without a Russian 



128 



MOSLEM LANDS 



passport. Yet from the Swedish missionary, 
Rev. E. John Larsen, who visited the capital, 
we have this interesting pen picture : — 

A Wonder- " The capital city of Bokhara, which is a state vassal 

ful City to Russia, is a stronghold at present for the spiritual 

power of Islam in Central Asia. From all Moslem coun- 
tries in Central Asia young men come for their higher 
education to the celebrated Moslem schools of Bokhara. 
Generally there are several thousands of students in these 
schools. Bokhara is one of the most interesting cities 
in the Orient. It is remarkable that a large proportion 
of the Moslems in the city can read. The reason, I think, 
is the number of schools. 

" Once I remained in Bokhara two months. From our 
bookstore in the city, our native helpers distributed the 
New Testament even among the people of Afghanistan. 
One old professor in the high school of Bokhara received 
from us the Bible in Arabic. He was very thankful, and 
early in the morning he used to come to visit us for read- 
ing, prayer, and conversation. One morning he said, ' I 
am convinced that Jesus Christ will conquer Mohammed. 
There is no doubt about it, because Christ is king of 
heaven and on the earth, and His kingdom fills heaven 
and will soon fill the earth.' " 

Such testimony from the heart of Moham- 
medan Asia is full of encouragement. 



The Gospel 
Victorious 



" Say not the struggle naught availeth, 
The labor and the wounds are vain, 
The enemy fainteth not, nor faileth, 
And as things have been they remain. 



" If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars ; 
It may be in yon smoke concealed, 
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers, 
And, but for you, possess the field. 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE BONE 129 

" For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, 
Seem here no painful inch to gain, 
Far back, through creeks and inlets making, 
Comes silent, flooding in, the main. 

" And not by eastern windows only, 

When daylight comes, comes in the light, 
In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly, 
But westward, look, the land is bright." 

The Mohammedans in China. — The thirty islam in 
(some say forty) million Mohammedans in Cmna 
China are a neglected problem in the evan- 
gelization of the Middle Kingdom. There is 
not a single society that has yet made them 
the objective of a special effort, and there are 
scarcely any missionaries in China who have 
qualified themselves to deal with the Moham- 
medans through knowledge of their literature 
and religion. There is, for example, a large 
Mohammedan literature in Chinese, but no 
Christian literature prepared specially to reach 
these monotheists, who live among the vast 
heathen population as distinct, religiously, as 
the Jews were from the Gentiles in the Roman 
Empire. 

Dr. Timothy Richard, who is at the head of Need for 
" the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and Literature 
General Knowledge among the Chinese," wrote 
in a recent letter : " In China there is no one at 
present writing for the Mohammedans. One 
or two tracts were written in Chinese some 
thirty-three years ago by a friend of mine, but 
none since." It seems almost incredible. No 
wonder that a missionary doing literary and 



130 MOSLEM LANDS 

A Bengal evangelistic work for the Mohammedans of 
Volunteer Bengal, when he heard these facts, wrote: 
"When I think of all those millions of Chi- 
nese Moslems without a Christian literature 
specially suited for them, I feel like packing 
up and going to China. And Chinese Mos- 
lems are the most tolerant and un-Moham- 
medan of any in the world, too." 

The Mohammedan religion entered China 
very early. For centuries preceding Moham- 
med there was commercial intercourse by sea 
between Arabia and China, and when the Arab 
merchants, the Sindbads of history, became Mos- 
lems, it was only natural that they carried 
their religion with them on their long voyages 
for silk, spices, and gold. We read that Mo- 
hammed utilized these early trade-routes in the 
When islam sixth year of the Hegira by sending his mater- 
Entered nal uncle Wahab bin Kabsh with a letter and 

suitable presents to the Emperor of China, ask- 
ing him to accept the new religion. Arriving 
at Canton the next year, he went to the capi- 
tal and preached Islam for two years. His 
preaching, which is mentioned in an inscription 
on the mosque at Canton, produced consider- 
able and permanent results. 

The first body of Arab settlers in China was 
a contingent of four thousand soldiers de- 
spatched by the Caliph Abu Jafer in 755 (or, 
according to others, by the Caliph Al Mansur 
in 758) to the assistance of the Emperor Hsuan- 
Tsung. These soldiers, in reward for their ser- 
vices and bravery, were allowed to settle in 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE BONE 131 

China, where, by intermarriage and preaching, 
they won over many to their faith. In the fol- 
lowing century we read that many thousands of 
Moslems were massacred in China, and Marco 
Polo speaks of the large Moslem population 
of Yunnan. 

The chief centres of Moslem population to- Numbers 
day are the provinces of Kansu, Shensi, and ^ d 
Yunnan. Regarding the present growth of 
Islam in China and the total number of Mos- 
lems in the empire, there is the greatest dis- 
agreement among writers. In 1889, Dr. Happer, 
of Canton, thought the numbers given by De 
Thiersant very excessive, and estimated the 
total Moslem population at not more than 
three millions. De Thiersant, who secured his 
data from Chinese officials, put it at twenty 
millions. A. H. Keane, in his geography of 
Asia, and in accordance with the Statesmen's 
Year Book, one of the best authorities on 
statistics, says that China has thirty million 
Mohammedans ; while an Indian writer, Surat 
Chandra Das, CLE., in the Journal of the 
Asiatic Society, estimates it at fifty millions ; 
and Seyyid Suleiman, a prominent Moslem offi- 
cer in Yunnan province, states that there are 
now seventy million Moslems in China! x 

Some missionaries are not at all apprehensive 
of Islam in China, and look upon this faith as 
a negligible factor in the evangelization of the 
empire. But those who have studied its prog- 
ress in other lands in the past may well pon- 

1 Wherry, "Islam and Christianity," pp. 21 and 22. 



132 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Turkestan 



der the following account of its methods as 
given by Arnold in his interesting chapter: — 

" In the towns, the Mohammedans tend little by little 
to form separate Mohammedan quarters, and finally do 
not allow any person to dwell among them who does not 
go to the mosque. Islam has also gained ground in China, 
because of the promptitude with which the Mohamme- 
dans have repeopled provinces devastated by the various 
scourges so familiar to China. In times of famine they 
purchase children from poor parents, bring them up in 
the faith of Islam, and when they are full-grown, provide 
them with wives and houses, often forming whole villages 
of these new converts. In the famine that devastated 
the province of Kwangtung in 1790, as many as 10,000 
children are said to have been purchased in this way 
from parents who, too poor to support them, were com- 
pelled by necessity to part with their starving little ones. 

" Seyyid Suleiman says that the number of accessions 
to Islam gained by this every year is beyond counting. 
Every effort is made to keep the faith alive among the 
new converts, even the humblest being taught, by means 
of metrical primers, the fundamental doctrines of Islam. 
To the influence of the religious books of the Chinese 
Moslems, Seyyid Suleiman attributes many of the con- 
versions that are made at the present day. They have 
no organized propaganda, yet the zealous spirit of pros- 
elytism with which the Chinese Mussulmans are ani- 
mated secures for them a constant succession of new 
converts, and they confidently look forward to the day 
when Islam will be triumphant throughout the length 
and breadth of the Chinese Empire. " x 

Turkestan or Tartary. — These terms are 
loosely applied to all the region east of the 
Caspian Sea, south of Siberia, west of Man- 
churia, and north of Afghanistan and India. 
It includes three divisions, — West Turkestan, 

1 T. W. Arnold, "The Preaching of Islam," p. 357. 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 133 

Jungaria, and East Turkestan. The former 
belongs to Russia, the other two are Chinese 
dependencies. West Turkestan has an area 
of about 1,600,000 square miles and a popula- 
tion of eight and a half million, Aryans, 
Mongols, and Turanians. The bulk of the 
population is Moslem. 

The physical features of this large area vary 
from mountain peaks of perpetual snow to deep 
gorges and valleys, some marvellously fertile, 
and others barren desert. East Turkestan has 
a small area and a much smaller population, 
The climate is severe, and there is no great 
fertility. The chief cities are Yarkand and 
Kashgar. The Swedish Missionary Society 
began work among Moslems at Kashgar in Two Mission 
1894 and later at Yarkand— the only light- stations 
houses in all this region of the shadow of 
night. 

Chinese Turkestan was long counted one of Chinese 
the inaccessible fields of the world, as were so Turkestan 
many other Moslem lands before pioneer faith 
knocked at their doors to find that Christ 
had opened. Paster Hogberg describes the 
entrance to this stronghold of Islam as "a 
journey on horseback over the mountains be- 
tween Osch and Kashgar, most interesting, but 
most difficult. One must cross some ranges of 
mountains whicli reach an elevation of from 
11,800 to 13,200 feet, and many times the road 
is very narrow, with a mountain on one side 
and a precipice on the other." Nature in this 
part of Asia is wild and grand. The Russian 



134 MOSLEM LANDS 

side of the mountains is more or less covered 
with verdure and shrubs, and trees are to be 
seen here and there ; but the Chinese side 
is barren and desolate. During spring and 
summer the traveller must frequently ford large 
rivers, often at the risk of his life. 

And the mission work surely is also " with a 
mountain on one side and a precipice on the 
other." Concerning the home life of the people, 
he says : — 

Home Life " The rich man lives in ease and luxury, surrounded 

by his harem, but sluggishness and idleness are the 
characteristics of the poor. . . . Babies spend their lives 
in a cradle, and are seldom taken up in the arms. Many 
a poor child is frozen to death in winter because of its 
being left alone, tied up in its baby basket. In summer 
the little ones run naked until they reach eight or ten 
years of age. 

"In the city, children of both sexes begin to go to 
school rather early, but the instruction is so poor that very 
few have learned to read and write, even when they have 
attended school for five or six years. Instead of a spell- 
ing-book, they use a piece of board on which the moliahs 
write the characters, or the passage of the Koran which 
the child is expected to learn. 

" Young men are expected to be married in their six- 
teenth or seventeenth year, and the girl at ten or thirteen. 
Here is an account of a marriage ceremony told by a 
native woman : <I was twelve years old. The friends of 
my mother and of my intended had settled the prelimi- 
naries of marriage. I knew nothing about it. One day 
a man arrived, bringing with him rice, flour, a sheep, 
clothes, etc., and then a great feast was prepared. I was 
peeling carrots, and this being finished, I ran into the 
garden, playing with my comrades. We were just run- 
ning into the street when my brother gave me a severe 
blow on my ear. Upon complaining to my mother, she 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE BONE 135 

said that it did not suit me going on to play in that way A Child 
when it was my wedding day. Hearing this, I began to Wife 
cry bitterly. The guests were assembled, and I was clad 
as a bride. The mollah, being in another room, had al- 
ready asked my intended whether he would marry me, 
and now it was my turn to be questioned. When, not 
saying a word, he repeated his question again and again, 
until I must whisper my "makbool" (yes, or accepted). 
The day after, I and one of my playmates mounted a horse 
and went to the home of my husband, where the marriage 
festivities were continued. My husband was thirty- two 
years old.' "... 

This pen picture of "things as they are" 
in darkest Asia may well close our brief and 
partial survey of the great occupied and unoc- 
cupied lands under the curse of Islam. 

It remains to consider the special difficulties 
of work for Moslems and the encouragements in 
the coming conflict. 

The Difficulties of the Work. — The evangel- Difficulties 
ization of these Mohammedan lands of which we of the Work 
have had glimpses in the foregoing paragraphs 
and chapters — so great in their extent, so deep 
in their degradation, so hopeless without the 
Gospel and so long neglected — is one of the 
grandest and most inspiring tasks to which 
Christ calls His Church. It has, however, because 
of its manifold difficulties, long been spoken of as 
the Mohammedan Missionary problem. Every 
land and people has its own angle of approach, 
its own peculiar environment, its own speech 
and climate and government. In this respect 
the Moslem mission fields also differ from one 
another. And yet in each and all of them the 



136 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Dirorce be- 
tween Reli- 
gion and 
Morals 



In tolerance 



Mohammedan problem has practically the same 
factors. 

There is, first of all, the utter divorce be- 
tween morality and religion. Islam is a for- 
mal religion, and the Koran is a soporific for the 
conscience. It is hard to arouse the moral sense 
after so many centuries of formalism and bar- 
ren ritual. All workers among Mohammedans 
speak of this condition. A good illustration is 
given by Dr. H. H. Jessup : "An Arab high- 
way robber and murderer was once brought for 
trial before a Mohammedan pasha, when the 
pasha stepped down and kissed his hand, as the 
culprit was a dervish or holy man who had been 
on several pilgrimages to Mecca, and had been 
known to repeat the name of God (Allah) more 
times in a day than any other man." The tale 
is not incongruous to a Moslem. 

Then there is the intolerance and pride of the 
Moslem creed which stands diametrically op- 
posed to the broken heart and humble spirit 
demanded by the Gospel. Mohammedan arro- 
gance is encouraged by the words of the 
Koran (Surah 3 : 106), " Ye are the best nation 
that hath been raised up unto mankind." 
Doughty, the traveller, gives a characteristic 
illustration of how the average Moslem in Ara- 
bia regards a "Nasrany" or Christian: "Our 
train of camels," he writes, " drew slowly by 
them ; but when the smooth Mecca merchant 
heard that the stranger riding with the camel- 
men was a Nasrany, he cried, c Akhs ! A Nas- 
rany in these parts ! ' and with the horrid inur- 



WORK .THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 137 

banity of their jealous religion, he added, 6 Allah 
curse his father ! ' and stared on me with a face 
worthy of the Koran." The t} r pical mullah of 
the Moslem faith, whether in India or Persia or 
the Sudan, often stares at the missionary " with 
a face worthy of the Koran." 

Another difficulty is the almost universal hos- 
tile attitude of Moslems toward a convert from 
their religion to Christianity, and even to all 
inquirers who begin to abandon Islam. What 
Adoniram Judson said of Burma is the rule in 
nearly every Moslem land. " When any person Hard to win 
is known to be considering the new religion, all Converts 
his relations and acquaintances rise en masse ; so 
that to get a new convert is like pulling the eye- 
tooth of a live tiger." A veteran missionary in 
Egypt writes, " Even in this land occupied with 
British troops and governed by British brains, 
it is next to impossible for one of a Moslem 
harem to come out and profess her faith in the 
Saviour of men." 

Again there are the hundred and one intellec- intellectual 
tual difficulties which must be met, the popular Dlfficulties 
Mohammedan objections to Christianity and 
Christian doctrine, nine-tenths of which are due 
to the ineradicable tendency on the part of Mos- 
lems to look upon everything carnally. They 
misunderstand the Bible, grossly misinterpret 
its spiritual symbolism, and make stumbling- 
blocks of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the 
Atonement, and the Deity of our Saviour ; 
while the Moslem's belief that the gospels are 
abrogated by the Koran, or have become so cor- 



138 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Death for 
Apostates 



Passports 



rupted that they are not reliable, is a funda- 
mental difficulty in all argument. 

All these difficulties are common in every 
Moslem land in greater or less degree. 

Finally, in Turkey, Morocco, Persia, Tripoli, 
Afghanistan, and parts of Arabia, the union 
between the temporal and spiritual power in Islam 
blocks evangelization. Apostasy in Turkey is 
treason against the state. Wherever Moslem 
rule obtains, every convert runs the risk of 
martyrdom. Death is the only legal right of the 
apostate according to the Koran; and the Koran 
is the only Magna Charta of liberty in such 
lauds. Not only are converts persecuted, but the 
missionary is terribly handicapped in his work. 

The first part of our Lord's last command is, 
" Gio ye "; but Turkey has tried to put all pos- 
sible obstacles in the way of obedience even to 
this. It is the only country claiming a species 
of civilization where an American passport is 
worthless away from the sea-coast. A Turkish 
tezkere, or permit to travel, not only requires a 
fresh vise for each journey, but must be regis- 
tered a half dozen times during each trip, with 
a corresponding loss of time. Yet an American 
missionary can hardly reckon his difficulties in 
this regard as worthy of mention in comparison 
with those of a native preacher or colporteur. 

No missionary physician can practise medicine 
in Turkey without a diploma obtained (or with- 
out valid reason often refused) at the capital. 
No book or newspaper can be printed or circu- 
lated without official permit ; no school opened 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 139 

or church service held or hospital erected with- 
out a special license. The hinderances placed 
in the way of publishing Christian literature 
are such as would have commanded the respect 
of the Spanish Inquisition. So many stories of 
Turkish press censorship have been told that Censorship 
a quarto volume of them might be gathered 
together. The American Bible Society was 
recently publishing a revised edition of the 
Turkish Scriptures when a zealous censor de- 
manded that such verses as Prov. 4 : 14-17 ; 
19:29; 20:21; 21:7; 22:28; 24:15,16; 26: 
26, be omitted, as bearing too pointedly on the 
present condition of affairs in Turkey. It 
took some exertion to convince him that the 
right to publish the Word of God intact had 
been secured by treaty. 

The editor of the weekly religious paper 
Avedaper was recently publishing a series of 
articles about Christ's Second Coming, but was 
forbidden to use the word millennium, as that 
seemed to intimate that there could be a more 
blessed period than the reign of Abd-ul- 
Hamid II.! 

Encouragements. — In spite of all these diffi- Encourage- 
culties, the outlook is not hopeless but hopeful. ments 
We are on the winning side, and have nothing 
to fear save our own sloth and inactivity. The 
love of Jesus Christ, manifested in hospitals, in 
schools, in tactful preaching, and incarnated in 
the lives of devoted missionaries, will irresistibly 
win Moslems and disarm all their fanaticism. 
It has done so in the hardest fields, is doing so, 



140 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Doors Open and will do so more and more when the Church 
realizes her unprecedented opportunities in the 
Moslem world and seizes them. " Altogether," 
says Dr. Rouse, the author of a series of tracts 
for Moslems and the veteran missionary of 
Bengal, " the situation is most interesting and 
encouraging. It would be much more so if I 
saw any sign of appreciation on the part of the 
Church of Christ of the special opportunities 
for missionary work among Mohammedans 
which are now to be seen everywhere." Three- 
fourths of the Moslem world is wholly accessi- 
ble. Distances and dangers have become less, 
so that the journey from London to Bagdad 
can now be accomplished with less hardship 
and in less time than it must have taken Lull 
to go from Paris to Bugia. Henry Martyn 
spent five long months to reach Shiraz from 
Calcutta ; the same journey can now be made 
in a fortnight. There will soon be a railway 
to Mecca built by Moslems themselves. 

The Mohammedans themselves seem to real- 
ize that their religion is disintegrating and losing 
ground. The frantic efforts at reform are evi- 
dence of the widespread dissatisfaction with 
their S3 r stem. In India Islam has abandoned, as 
untenable, controversial positions which were 
once thought impregnable. Instead of denying 
the integrity of the Bible and forbidding its use, 
they now read it and write commentaries on it, 
Mighty and irresistible forces are at work in 
Islam itself to prepare the way for the Gospel. 
Thousands of Moslems have grown weary of 



Railway to 
Mecca 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE BONE 141 

their old faith, and of ten thousands it is true Hunger for 

that they are thirsting for a living Mediator. 

The Babis, the Behais, the Shathalis, the Sufis, 

and other sects and schools of thought, are 

all examples of this unconscious search for our 

Redeemer, whom Mohammed and the Koran 

have so long eclipsed. 

" Far and wide though all unknowing, 
Pants for Thee each human breast ; 
Human tears for Thee are flowing, 
Human hearts in Thee would rest." 

Even where fanaticism forbids open preach- 
ing, the opportunities for medical mission work 
among Moslems are unprecedented because there 
is a demand for Christian physicians on the 
part of Moslems themselves, and, of all the 
methods adopted by Christian missions in Mos- 
lem lands, none have been more successful in 
breaking down prejudice and bringing large 
numbers of people under the sound of the Gos- 
pel. The work at Sheikh Othman, Busrah, Medical 
and Bahrein in Arabia, at Quetta in Balu- M^ 10118 
chistan, and at Tanta in Egypt are examples. 
Regarding the latter place, Dr. Anna Watson 
reports that ninety per cent of the cases treated 
are Moslem women who come from villages 
scattered far and wide, untouched by any other 
missionary agency. The medical missionary 
carries a passport of mercy which will gain 
admission for the truth everywhere. All the 
vast unoccupied territory in the Mohammedan 
world is waiting for the pioneer medical mis- 
sionary, man or woman. 



142 



MOSLEM LANDS 



Education In many Moslem lands also there are unpre- 

cedented opportunities for educational work. 
The spread of the New-Islam, the increase of 
journalism, the political ambitions of Pan- 
Islamism x and the march of civilization are all 
uniting to produce a desire for higher education. 
Then there is the world-wide opportunity 
even in the most difficult fields for the distri- 
bution of the Word of God among Moslems 
by colporteurs and missionaries. Not without 
reason does the Koran always speak of Chris- 
tians and Jews as "the people of the Book." 
Ours is the opportunity to prove it by carrying 
the Book to every Moslem in the world. We 
can safely leave the verdict on the Book to the 
Moslem himself. In 1905 there were issued 

The Press from the Christian presses at Constantinople 
and Beirut, in languages read by Mohammedans, 
over fifty million pages of Christian literature. 
A Trumpet-Call from Algiers. — The power 

A Trumpet- of prevailing prayer must be applied to this 
mighty problem. And who can better call us, 
at the end of our study, to this service for 
the King than one of His faithful soldiers in 
Algiers, who is giving her life to this conflict. 
Miss Lillian L. Trotter writes : — 

"A few years ago all was dormant: the Church 
acquiesced in the fact that Missions to Mohammedans 
were a barren affair, and the powers of hell were satisfied 



Call 



1 See articles on this subject in the North American 
Beview for June, 1906, and in the Nineteenth Century for 
October, 1906, by Archibald R. Colquhoun and Professor 
Vambery. 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE BONE 143 

with her decision. There was therefore nothing to fight 
over; and the tiny band of sappers and miners at the 
front could only plod away doggedly, often for years 
together, without the impetus of seeing a skirmish, let 
alone a victory. 

" Now, some of the most far-sighted of God's servants The Battle 
tell us that the Moslem question may be the very crux is on 
of the whole battle in non-Christian lands ; and the throb 
of faith at home pulses to one after another on the field. 

" And the result of growing faith and prayer is this : 
the Prince of Darkness has already felt its touch, and 
has moved; that is an immense point gained. We 
have drawn the enemy's fire. In a vantage-ground 
which he has held in massive, motionless power for 
ages, he would not move unless forced : mental inertia, 
spiritual torpor, were the spell he has used in Moslem 
lands. To allow this spell to be broken by a breath of 
active resistance, such as the rally of Pan Islam shows, 
means a change of tactics. Such resistance is the first 
phase of victory. 

" The powers against us have accepted our challenge. The Chal- 
Praise God ! Their counter-challenge is the clearest call lenge Ae- 
to our faith to press on. In the late war the Japanese ce P ted 
were storming an all but impregnable fort, falling in 
crowds in the trench, as they knew how to fall ; and the 
pile of bodies rose higher and higher up the glacis. 
Suddenly for one instant the Japanese flag waved at the 
summit — only for one instant, before the bearer was 
cut down. But all had seen it. Where the flag had 
swung for a moment was its place. Over the backs of 
the dead, on the shoulders of the living, the host swarmed 
in one great onset that overpowered the defenders, and 
the flag rose to stay. 

" We have seen the flag wave ; we have seen that 
Christ can save Moslems. It may be that in many cases 
it has seemed but a hardly earned, momentary victory, 
scarcely worth calling by the name. Shall not that very 
fact fire us, as it fired those Japanese heroes? for that 
Christ has had the least foretaste of His triumph in a 
crucial point like this, is a challenge to His soldiers to 



144 MOSLEM LANDS 

Shall we make it good. Shall we not fling ourselves up the glacis 
Win? in a reckless passion of loyalty — a passion that shall 

make giving, or praying, or going, a mere easing of our 
hearts, if only we may have our share in the setting up 
His banner on the hardest-to-be-won of the enemy's 
fortresses ? " 

HELPS FOE LEADERS 
Lesson Aim : 

To show something of the perplexing difficulties and 
dimensions of the Mohammedan Problem and to give a 
clear idea of the vast regions and populations still un- 
touched. Or the lesson can be used to set forth the need 
of many more especially qualified missionaries for pio- 
neer work in Moslem lands. 
Scripture Lesson : 

Matt. 28 : 16-20 ; Rev. 19 : 11-21 ; Gen. 21 : 14-20. 
Suggestive Questions : 

1. What is the total area of the Moslem lands still 
wholly unoccupied by missions ? 

2. Mention the chief difficulties in work for Moslems 
under Turkish rule ? Under British rule in Egypt ? 

3. What are the opportunities for medical missions 
in Afghanistan, Bokhara, Turkestan, western Arabia? 

4. What opportunities are there for literary work on 
behalf of the Mohammedans of China? 

5. What opportunities are there for women as medi- 
cal missionaries in the following cities : Hyderabad, 
Kabul, Bagdad, Sanaa, Fez, Timbuktu, Muscat? 

6. What Bible promises are there for the final and 
complete success of missions in Moslem lands? (Zwe- 
mer's " Arabia," pp. 396-407. 

7. Which large denominations in America have no 
missionary work whatever among Moslems ? 

8. Mention seven Mohammedan objections to Chris- 
tianity or the Gospel. 

9. What is the relation between the national move- 
ment in Egypt and Pan-Islamism ? 

10. Write out a brief missionary prayer for the needs 
of unoccupied Moslem lands. 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 145 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

In addition to several of the books given in previous 
chapters and standard books of travel on the unoccupied 
fields, the following are suggested: — 

W. St. Clair Tisdall, " A Manual of the Leading Mo- 
hammedan Objections to Christianity. " London, 1904. 

"Islam and Christianity," Anon. (Most Interesting 
Letters by a Lady Missionary.) American Tract Society, 
1903. 

" Sweet First Fruits." (A story.) Translated from 
the Arabic by Sir William Muir. London, 1893. 

" Methods of Mission Work among Moslems." Flem- 
ing H. Revell Co., New York, 1906. (Report of Cairo 
Conference and discussions.) 

Xaylor, " Unoccupied Mission Fields in Africa," in The 
Missionary Review, March, 1906. 

Karl Kumm, " The Call of the Sudan," in The Mission- 
ary Review, January, 1907. 

Karl Kumm, " The Sudan." London, 1907. 

Colonel G. Wingate, " Un evangelized Regions in Cen- 
tral Asia," in The Missionary Review of the World, May, 
1907. 

Harlan P. Beach, "Geography and Atlas of Protestant 
Missions." See pp. 493-515 in the Geography. 

SOME RECENT ARTICLES ON MOHAMMEDAN 
LANDS AND WORK IN THE MISSIONARY 
REVIEW OF THE WORLD. 

Islam and Christian Missions, Rev. Jas. S. Dennis, D.D., 
August, 1889. 

A Glimpse of Moslem Homes, Rev. Geo. E. Post, De- 
cember, 1901. 

Notes on Islam in India, James Monro, May, 1903. 

The Malay Archipelago, H. Grattan Guinness, D.D., 
May, 1898. 

Moslem Women, Mrs. S. G. Wilson, December, 1901. 

Islam in Persia, Rev. S. Lawrence Ward, May, 1903. 

Signs of the Times in Islam, Henry Otis D wight, LL.D., 
November, 1903. 



146 MOSLEM LANDS 

The Effort to Reform Islam, Mohammed Sarfaraz Khan, 
August, 1902. 

The Moslem Attitude toward Christian Missions in the 
Holy Land, Key. Arthur J. Brown, D.D., December, 
1902. 

In Darkest Morocco, George C. Reed, June, 1902. 

The Gospel in North Africa, Rev. John Rutherfurd, B.D., 
June, 1893. 

Christian Forces at Work in the Turkish Empire, Rev. 
Edward Riggs, D.D., October, 1901. 

Fifteen Years of Progress in Egypt, Rev. J. K. Giffen, 
October, 1904. 

A Mohammedan View of the Mohammedan World, 
Anon., October, 1899. 

A Saint in Sumatra (Hester Needham), January, 1900. 

The Gospel in Persia, Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall, M.A., 
' October, 1898. 

An Appeal for Hadramaut, Arabia, Rev. S. M. Zwemer, 
October, 1902. 

The Revival of Islam, Canon Edward Sell, D.D., Octo- 
ber, 1902. 

How to Win Moslems for Christ, various authors, Octo- 
ber, 1904. 

The Normal State of Affairs in Turkey, Its Bearing on 
Missionary Work, Anon., October, 1904. 

Open Doors in Oman, Arabia, Rev. S. M. Zwemer, May, 
1901. 

How Abd-ul-Hamid II. became the Great Assassin, Octo- 
ber, 1898. 

Babism — The Latest Revolt from Islam, October, 1898. 

ILLUSTRATIVE SELECTIONS 

A Moslem " Endless Chain Letter." — The following 
curious epistle was brought to West Africa and into the 
Gold Coast Colony by a pilgrim from Mecca, and is now 
being passed from hand to hand among the people. It 
attracts much attention. Whoever reads it is expected to 
pass it on to his next friend, or to copy it and hand it on 
to several. The people, like those who receive u endless 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE BONE 147 

chain " letters in this country, feel constrained to send 
the document on, because the letter insists that they may 
not break the chain : — 

"In the name of God, the Merciful and Compas- 
sionate : — 

" Blessed be Mohammed, his family and his people, on 
whom with all holy prophets may peace rest. 

" This letter is written for all true believers living on 
the west of the desert. It comes from the holy men of 
Mecca, who seek to follow the paths of righteousness, 
from the disciples of the holy Abd ul Kadir, to whom be 
glory forever, and from those who walk in the footsteps 
of Abd Illahi and Abd-ur-Rahman. 1 

" Take heed to its contents. 

u During his long sleep our Lord Mohammed has seen 
that our world and all that is in it will certainly be de- 
stroyed. 

" We beseech Thee, O Almighty God, for the sake of 
Mohammed and his family, save us ! . . . (Here follow 
promises and threats to accept Islam.) 

" In conclusion : Whoever receives this letter must 
needs pass it on to another district under pain of hell 
fire. Before long the gate of repentance will shut itself 
forever. Repent ! The day of Judgment is near ! 
Fast ; give alms ; pray. Whoever reads this letter to his 
brother shall be rewarded for it; paradise shall be his 
portion ; in the Day of Judgment he shall not be judged. 
Whoever, on the other hand, neglects to do it, shall be 
sent with the idolators into the seventh hell. Pray; 
fast ; and pay tithes, without which you will not be re- 
ceived into paradise. God will not disappoint those who 
follow His paths. It is finished." — Condensed from 
The Missionary Review of the World, September, 1905. 

Our Duty. — "The Church must awake to her duty 
towards Islam. Who will wake her and keep her 
awake, unless it be those who have heard the chal- 
lenge of Islam, and who, going out against her, have 

1 These are names of saints of the Dervish orders. 



148 MOSLEM LANDS 

found her armour decayed, her weapons antiquated, and 
her children, though proud and reticent, still unhappy ; 
stationary or retrogressive in a day of progress and life. 
Happy are we to have a share in this great movement. 
Woe unto us if we are timid and fearful, on the one hand, 
or tactless and imprudent, on the other. We are those 
who need wisdom and zeal — the wisdom that will do 
nothing unwise, the zeal that will not let wisdom be so 
cautious as to do nothing." — Robert E. Speer. 

Why the Gospel is a "Hard Saying" to Moslems. — "The 
manifold and irksome ceremonies that constitute part of 
the daily life of a Mohammedan, not only mean a return 
to that bondage from which mature man should be free, 
but they are thought to constitute an obligation to be 
repaid by the Deity. The fact that a Mohammedan will 
probably have performed them regularly from boyhood, 
constitutes a serious bar to missionary effort ; for it turns 
him who would fain bring good tidings into a messenger 
of bad news. His message is that all this credit is imagi- 
nary ; the sum amassed by such long exertions does not 
exist. Go and tell the bankers in Lombard Street that 
the gold coin in their vaults and those of the Bank of 
England is all counterfeit ; that the slightest test will ex- 
pose it; that in a few days or hours no one will give 
commodities in exchange for it. He who brought such a 
message now would simply incur ridicule ; for the owners 
of the coin could immediately convince themselves that 
the tale was false. But supposing that they knew in their 
secret hearts that it was true ; that they dare not go down 
into the vaults or test the coin, for fear it should show 
base color ; that numerous incidents coming into their 
memory all confirmed the news. What in that case 
would happen to such a messenger? Even to-day he 
would not be safe from pistol or dagger. 

"And it is precisely such a message as that which the 
Christian missionary brings to those who all their lives 
have supposed that the five daily prayers, and the fasting 
month, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, are the service 
which God desires. They have to be told that all this is 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 149 

of no value ; that what God requires of them is something 
very different, and far less flattering to their vanity; and 
that even so, what their discharge of it will represent is 
not assets, but a deficit. < When ye have done all, say, 
" We are unprofitable servants." 5 

" And if the message of the Gospel be in any case that of 
bankruptcy before it can tell of the greater and truer riches, 
what must be the character of the message to those whose 
lives have been spent in discussing the minutiae of those 
childish rites, and whose profession is thought to be the 
most honourable that a man can follow ? Truly it can 
only be the grace of God that makes the blind to see and 
the deaf to hear." — Professor Margoliouth, of Ox- 
ford, in the CM. S. Intelligencer. 

The Lost Sheep of the House of Ishmael 

" ' O tender Shepherd, climbing rugged mountains, 
And wading waters deep, 
How long wouhTst Thou be willing to go homeless 
To find a straying sheep ? ' 

" < I count no time,' the Shepherd gently answered, 
' As thou dost count and bind 
The days in weeks, the weeks in months ; My 

counting 
Is just — until I find. 

u < And that would be the limit of My journey. 
I'd cross the waters deep, 
And climb the hillsides with unfailing patience — 
Until I found My sheep.' " 

— Selected. 

a Ask and Ye shall Receive." — "Let us have another 
triumph of prayer. If the Church of Christ will march 
around this mighty fortress of the Mohammedan faith, 
sounding her silver trumpets of prayer, it will not be long 
before, by some intervention of divine power, it will be 
overthrown. Let it be one of the watchwords of the 



150 MOSLEM LANDS 

Church, that Christ, the Child of the Orient, and the divine 
Heir of her tribes and kingdoms, shall possess His inherit- 
ance. The Moslem world shall be open to the gracious 
entrance of the Saviour and the triumphs of the Gospel. 
The spell of twelve centuries shall be broken. That voice 
from the Arabian desert shall no longer say to the Church 
of the living God, Thus far and no farther. The deep 
and sad delusion which shadows the intellectual and 
spiritual life of so many millions of our fellow-men shall 
be dispelled, and the blessed life-giving power of Christ's 
religion shall supplant all the dead forms and the out- 
worn creed of Islam." — James S. Dennis, D.D. 

Men Wanted. — "We need the best men the Church 
can afford — men who, in the spirit of Henry Martyn, 
Isidor Loewenthal, Ion Keith Falconer, Bishop French, 
Peter Zwemer, and many others gone to their reward, 
hold not their lives dear ; men who carry the burden 
of these millions of Moslems upon their hearts, and 
with Abraham of old cry out : O, that Ishmael might 
live before thee ! " — Edward Morris Wherry. 

An Appeal. — " The number of Moslem women is so 
vast — not less than one hundred million — that any 
adequate effort to meet the need must be on a scale far 
wider than has ever yet been attempted. 

" We do not suggest new organizations, but that every 
church and Board of Missions at present working in 
Moslem lands should take up their own women's branch 
of the work with an altogether new ideal before them, de- 
termining to reach the whole world of Moslem women in 
this generation. Each part of the women's work being 
already carried on needs to be widely extended. Trained 
and consecrated women doctors, trained and consecrated 
women teachers, groups of women workers in the villages, 
an army of those with love in their hearts to seek and 
save the lost. And with the willingness to take up this 
burden, so long neglected, for the salvation of Mohamme- 
dan women, even though it may prove a very Cross of 
Calvary to some of us, we shall hear our Master's voice 
afresh, with ringing words of encouragment : i Have faith 



WORK THAT REMAINS TO BE DONE 151 

in God ; for verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say 
unto this mountain, " Be thou removed, and be thou cast 
into the sea," and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall 
believe that these things which he saith shall come to pass, 
he shall have whatsoever he saith. '" — Appeal of the 
Women Delegates at the Cairo Conference. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF SOME IMPOR- 
TANT EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF ISLAM 
AND MISSIONS TO MOSLEMS 

A.D. 

570. Birth of Mohammed at Mecca. 

595. Yemen passes under Persian rule. 

610. Mohammed begins his prophetic career. 

622. The Hegira or flight of Mohammed from Mecca 

to Medina. (A.H. 1.) 

623. Battle of Bedr. 

624. Battle of Ohod. 

628. Reputed mission of Abi Kabsha to China. 

630. Mecca entered and conquered. 

632. Death of Mohammed. Abu Bekr, first Caliph. 

634. Omar Caliph. Jews and Christians expelled from 
Arabia. 

636. Capture of Jerusalem by the Caliph Omar. 

637. Conquest of Syria. 

638. Kufa and Busrah founded. 

640. Capture of Alexandria by Omar. 

642. Conquest of Persia. 

644. Othman Caliph. 

661. Ali assassinated. Hassan becomes Caliph. 

711. Tank crosses the straits from Africa to Europe, 

and calls the mountain, Jebel Tarik = Gibraltar. 
711. Mohammed Kasim overruns Sindh (India) in the 

name of Walid I. of Damascus. 
732. Battle of Tours. Europe saved from Islam. 
742. First mosque built in North China. 
754. Mansur. 

756-1258. Abbasid Caliphs at Bagdad. 
786. Haroun er-Rashid Caliph of Bagdad. 
153 



154 MOSLEM LANDS 

A.D. 

809. Amin. 

813. Mamun. 

833. Motasim. Islam spread in Transoxania, 

847. Mutawakkel. 

889. Rise of Carmathian sect. 

930. Carmathians take Mecca and carry away the Black 
Stone to Katif. 
1000. Islam invades India from the North. 
1005. Preaching of Sheikh Ismail at Lahore, India. 
1019. Mahmnd Ghazni, champion of Islam in India. 
1037-1300. Seljnk Turks. 
1055. Togrul Beg at Bagdad. 
1063. Alp Arslan, Seljukian Turkish Prince. 
1077. Timbuktu founded. Islam in western Sudan. 
1096-1272. The Crusades. 
1169-1193. Saladin. 

1176-1206. Mohammed G-hori conquers Bengal. 
1276. Islam introduced into Malacca. 
1299-1326. Reign of Othman, founder of Ottoman 

dynasty. 
1305. Preaching and spread of Islam in the Deccan. 
1315. Raymund Lull, first missionary to Moslems, stoned 

to death at Bugia, Tunis. 
1330. Institution of the Janissaries. 
1353. First entrance of the Turks into Europe. 
1369-1405. Tamerlane. 
1389. Islam begins to spread in Servia. 
1398. Tamerlane invades India. 
1450. Missionary activity of Islam in Java begins. 
1453. Capture of Constantinople by Mohammed II. 
1492. Discovery of America. End of Moslem rule in 

Spain by defeat of Boabdil at Grenada. 
1500. Spread of Islam in Siberia. 
1507. The Portuguese take Muscat. 
1517. Selim I. conquers Egypt and wrests caliphate from 

Arab line of Koreish for Ottoman sultans. 
1525-1707. Mogul Empire in India. 
1538. Suleiman the Magnificent takes Aden by treachery. 
1540. Beginning of Turkish rule in Yemen. 
1556. Akbar the Great rules in India. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 155 

A.D. 

1603. Islam enters Celebes and New Guinea. 

1627. Shah Jehan, Mogul ruler in India. 

1630. Arabs drive out Turks from Yemen. 

1659-1707. Aurangzeb in India. 

1683. Final check of Turks at gates of Vienna by John 
Sobieski, king of Poland, September 12. Eastern 
Europe saved from Islam rule. 

1691. Mohammed bin Abd ul Wahab born. 

1739-1761. Afghan Mohammed invasion of India and 
sack of Delhi. 

1740-1780. Wahabi reform spreads over all southern and 
central Arabia except Oman. 

1757. Battle of Plassey. British Empire in India. 

1801. Wahabi s invade Bagdad vilayet and sack Kerbela. 

1803. Mecca taken by the Wahabis. 

1806. Henry Martyn reaches India. 

1820-1817. British treaties with Moslem chiefs in Per- 
sian Gulf. 

1820. Levi Parsons and Pliny Fiske, first missionaries 
from America, reach Smyrna. 

1822. American Mission Press founded in Malta. 

1826. C. M. S. attempt a mission in Egypt. 

1827. Dr. Eli Smith begins translation of Arabic Bible. 
1839. Aden bombarded by British fleet and taken. 

1857. Indian (Sepoy) Mutiny. 

1356. End of Crimean War. Treaty of Paris. 

1858. Bombardment of Jiddah by the British. 

1860. Civil war in the Lebanon s. Dr. Van Dyek's trans- 
lation of Arabic N. T. issued. 

1863. Syrian Protestant College founded. 

1866. First Girls' Boarding School, Cairo. 

1869. Corner-stone laid of Roberts College. 

1870. Second Turkish invasion of Yemen. 
1875. C. M. S. begin mission work in Persia. 

1878. Treaty of Berlin. Independence of Bulgaria. 

England occupies Cyprus. 

1879. Royal Niger Company founded. (Britain in 

Africa.) 

1881. Rise of the Mahdi near Khartum. 

1882. Massacre of Europeans at Alexandria. 



156 MOSLEM LANDS 



A. D. 



1882. British occupation of Egypt. C. M. S. Mission. 

1883. Defeat of Anglo-Egyptian forces to the Mahdi. 
1883. Mission work began at Bagdad. 

1885. Fall of Khartum. Murder of Gordon. 

1885. Keith Falconer Mission began at Aden. 

1889. The (American) Arabian Mission organized. 

1889. Mahdi invasion of Egypt. 

1890. Anglo-French protectorate over Sahara. 

1891. Bishop French died at Muscat, May 14. 

1892. French annex Dahomey and conquer Timbuktu. 

1893. Mirza Ibrahim martyred in Persia. 

1894. Anglo-French-German delimitation of Sudan. 

1895. Rebellion of Arabs against the Turks in Yemen. 

1895. Great Armenian Massacres. 

1896. Massacre at Harpoot. 

1898. Fall of the Mahdi. Occupation of the Sudan. 

1900. British Protectorate declared over Nigeria and 

Hausa-land. 

1906. The Algeciras Conference regarding Morocco. 

1906. The first general Missionary Conference on behalf 

of the Mohammedan world held at Cairo. 

— Condensed from "Islam a Challenge to Faith." 




■ ,. 1 -,,.„, J .. IOO 



SIAM 



BY 

THE KEY. ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN, D.D. 

author of 

"New Forces in Old China" 

and 

44 The New Era in the Philippines" 



CHAPTER V 
SIAM 

THE COUNTRY 

Siam is an irregularly shaped country, the Siam 
main part of which lies between the twelfth 
and twenty-first parallels of latitude, but which 
sends a long peninsula southward to within 
four degrees of the equator. It is bounded on 
the north by the British Shan States and the 
French Tong King; on the east by Anam and 
Cambodia, also French; on the south by the 
Gulf of Siam and the Federated Malay States 
(British); and on the west by the Indian 
Ocean and British Burma. Except, therefore, 
for a part of the peninsula, the country is com- 
pletely hemmed in by the French and British, 
though there is a coast-line on the Gulf of Siam 
and Indian Ocean of 1760 miles. Siam has lost 
considerable territory to France in recent years, 
but the country is still far from being insignifi- 
cant in size. It is 1130 miles long, 508 miles 
wide along the fifteenth parallel, and the area 
is 220,000 square miles. In other words, it is 
about as large as Japan and Korea combined, 
larger than Germany, and about equal to the 
combined area of the American States of New 
York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, and all six of the New Eng- 
land States. 

159 



160 SIAM 

Climate The climate is tropical. The writer was in 

Siam in the late fall and winter, which are 
called " the cool, healthy season." The condi- 
tions, however, were about those of an Ameri- 
can July. The nights were fairly cool, and on a 
few exceptional mornings the thermometer fell 
to 56 degrees ; but on seven typical January 
days, the midday heat averaged 70 in the shade, 
and 136 in the sun. The Laos " cool season " 
is about that of a New York May — a decided 
improvement on the midsummer " winter " of 
Siam. Cholera, which is always present in 
Bangkok, occurs only in rare, sporadic cases in 
Chieng Mai, and then only as the result of 
infection from Lower Siam, while dysentery 
is more infrequent than in China. The cool 
season, however, is short. Malarial fever is 
common, as it is everywhere in southern Asia, 
and the isolation begets in some persons a lone- 
liness which is more trying than disease. 

The climate is not bad, however, for the 
tropics, and the most dreaded diseases result 
from causes which a missionary can ordinarily 
avoid. The general health of the missionaries 
in Siam and Laos has been about as good as 
that of • missionaries in China, though more 
frequent furloughs are necessary. * Dr. Dean 
wrote at the age of nearly fourscore: "Do not 
represent the climate of Siam as insalubrious. 
People die here ; so they do everywhere else, 
except in heaven. The report that Siam is un- 
healthful is a libel on the climate." The best 
season for the visitor is between the first of 



THE COUNTRY 161 

October and the middle of February. From 
the latter date to May is the hottest and un- 
healthiest season. Moreover, until the comple- 
tion of the railway, Laos could not be visited 
in these months on account of low water in the 
Me Nam and Me Ping rivers. From June 
to October, heavy rains and inundated roads 
render travel unhealthful and impracticable. 
AYe may add that there are no inns in Laos, so 
that the traveller should provide himself with a 
tent and camp equipage. 

Physically, the northern part of Siam is Physical 
greatly diversified. It is a land of mountains Ge °g ra P h y 
and valleys and rushing streams, one of the 
most beautiful regions in the world. The cen- 
tral and southern part is more level, a vast 
area being occupied by the broad, flat valley 
and delta of the Me Nam River. This mighty 
stream is fed by many smaller ones, which rise 
among the mountains of Laos. At Paknampo 
it receives the waters of the largest of its tribu- 
taries, the Me Ping. The Me Nam is the great 
highway of Siam, and for centuries has been 
the only means of communication between the 
north and the south. It is navigable, at high 
water, for light-draught steamers as far as 
Paknampo, and for some distance above that 
point by launches. In the dry season, how- 
ever, the water becomes so shallow that only 
the small native boats can be used. East of the 
Me Nam valley there is an elevated plateau. 
The other great river, the Me Kawng, runs 
along the eastern boundary of Siam. This 



162 SIAM 

also is a very long stream, but its course is 
broken by so many rapids and obstructions 
that it is not navigable. The southern penin- 
sula is traversed almost its entire length by a 
mountain range of moderate height, although 
there are spacious grassy tracts near the coast* 
Generally speaking, we may characterize the 
northern part of Siam as a hill country; the 
eastern part as a table-land ; the central part as 
an alluvial plain; and the southern part as a 
mountainous peninsula. 

Flora The soil is, for the most part, exceedingly 

rich. The tropical climate and abundant rain- 
fall nourish a prolific vegetation, except on 
the eastern table-land, which is not so well 
watered. The delta of the Me Nam is clothed 
with a dense growth of tall jungle grasses and 
bushes. In the north, and also on the peninsula, 
there are vast forests, which include some rare 
and valuable woods. The chief part of the 
world's supply of teak comes from here, and 
British trading companies have agents all 
through this region, getting out this greatly 
prized lumber under concessions from the gov- 
ernment. 

Everywhere one sees palms of many varieties, 
and almost every imaginable kind of tropical 
plants, vines, and flowers. 

Products The staple products of the country are lumber 

in the north, tin in the Malay Peninsula, where 
some of the greatest tin mines of the world are 
located; rice in the valleys, particularly on the 
rich delta of the Me Nam; and everywhere, in 



THE PEOPLE 163 

unlimited quantities, bananas, cocoanuts, limes, 
yams, and other tropical and semi-tropical fruits 
and vegetables. 

The chief exports are rice, teak, and tin, and Exports and 
the chief imports, we are sorry to note, are wine, Im P° rts - 
beer, spirits, and opium. Siam thus gives to 
the Christian world better products than she 
receives. 

THE PEOPLE 

The native inhabitants of Siam belong to the Races 
Tai (or Shan) race, whose original home was 
in central and southern China. They were not 
Chinese, being more nearly allied to the Aryan 
races of India than to the Mongolian. They 
probably retreated before the stronger Chinese. 
They are now scattered over the whole Indo- 
Chinese Peninsula. Dialectic differences sub- 
divide this race as follows : — 

1. Eastern Shan (or Tai) : those living in the 

territory drained by the Me Kawng River 
and the northern tributaries of the Me Nam 
River. 

2. Western Shan (or Tai) : those living in the 

territory drained by the Salween and 
Irrawaddy rivers. 

3. Siamese (or southern Tai): those living in 

southern Siam. 

Xote. — The word " Tai " is used by all of these peoples 
when giving the name of their race. It means "free." 
" Shan " is the English equivalent of a Burmese word to des- 
ignate the people of the Tai race. The local terms used are 
legion; e.g. "Tai Nua" (northern Tai), those living in 
southwest China; u Lem," those living in Muang Lem; 



164 



SIAM 



"Chao Yawng," those living in Muang Yawng ; u Chao 
Chieng Mai," those living in Chieng Mai; "Lao," those 
living in Luang Prabang and adjoining provinces ; Lii-Kiin- 
Yuen, etc. The word "Laos" is from "Lao," the term 
applied by the Siamese to all those classified under subdivi- 
sion 1. 

Population It is not easy to get accurate statistics of 
population, as Asiatics are not as particular 
as Americans in taking a census, and usually 
count only the men and guess at the women 
and children. The best estimate is 6,070,000. 
The population is far from being homogene- 
ous. The table given notes only the subdivi- 
sions of the Tai race. The following table 
gives the other elements of the population, the 
Laos being included for statistical purposes : 

Siamese 1,766,000 

Chinese 1,400,000 

Laos 1,350,000 

Malays 753,000 

Cambodians and Annamites .... 490,000 

Mons 130,000 

Karens 130,000 

Shans (chiefly Western Shans from Burma) . 46,000 
A few minor tribes and a small number of 

Europeans and Americans .... 5,000 

6,070,000 



Physical 
Characteris- 
tics 



The Siamese are, of course, the dominant 
race. They are about medium in height and 
physical development, brown in color, with 
straight black hair, cut short, slightly flattened 
nose, and eyes not so oblique as those of the 
Chinese and Japanese. 



THE PEOPLE 165 

The Laos-speaking people extend from The People 
Utradit on the south to Chieng Hoong on the of Laos 
north, and from the Nam Ur River on the east 
to the Salween-Me Kawng watershed on the 
west. They overflow these boundaries on all 
four sides, but beyond them they shade off 
rapidly into other tribes, so that for practical 
purposes the limits named are approximately 
correct. With the exception of a small number 
of Burmese Shans who are scattered among 
them, the Laos have practically exclusive pos- 
session of this extensive area. As we have 
already noted, there are 1,350,000 of these 
people in northern Siam, but there are several 
hundred thousand more in French territory 
east of the Cambodia and several hundred 
thousand others in British territory in the Shan 
States. They differ from the Siamese in lan- 
guage, dress, and many customs and characteris- 
tics. The missionaries among them insist that 
they are superior to the Siamese in intelligence 
and character. Politically, however, the latter 
appear to have no difficulty in maintaining their 
supremacy. The author found the Laos the 
most attractive people in Asia. They are clean, 
speaking comparatively of course, kindly, in- 
telligent, and far more responsive to new reli- 
gious teaching than the Siamese. 

The Chinese, next to the Siamese, are the Chinese 
most numerous race in Siam. They are to be 
found all over the country. The Bangkok re- 
turns for the poll-tax in 1900 gives 65,345 
adult males for that city alone. It is difficult 



166 SIAM 

to give exact figures anywhere, for the Chinese 
have been coming to Siam for so long a period 
and have intermarried with the natives to such 
an extent that a large part of the population 
now contains more or less Chinese blood. The 
King himself is said to be part Chinese. The 
blending of races is very noticeable in the mis- 
sion schools, a majority of the scholars usually 
having some Chinese blood. The queue is 
everywhere in evidence, being often worn by 
those who are only a quarter Chinese, partly 
because the Chinese in Siam are recognized as 
the strongest and wealthiest element in the 
country, partly because the law, instead of dis- 
criminating against them, really favors them 
by exempting them from certain burdens which 
bear heavily upon the Siamese. As in Burma 
and the Philippine Islands, the Chinese almost 
absolutely control the trade of the kingdom. 
Every arriving steamer brings scores and some- 
times hundreds from Canton, Swatow, Foochow, 
and Hainan, while in Laos the Yunnanese 
traders are to be seen in every important town. 
These Chinese immigrants are introducing a 
more virile strain into the blood of Siam. They 
bring a stronger fibre, greater skill and energy 
and persistence, and by their intermarriage with 
the Siamese are in a measure communicating 
these qualities to them, 
other Races The other elements of the population need not 
detain us, further than to note that the Cambodi- 
ans and Annamites have crossed the Me Kawng 
River from their original home and, like the 



THE PEOPLE 167 

Chinese, readily mingle with the Siamese, and 
that the Malays are chiefly to be found in the 
south and on the Malay Peninsula. 

The Siamese lack the persistence and indus- Charac- 
try of the Chinese. Here, as in Burma and the teristic s 
Philippines, a tropical climate begets indolence, 
and reduces wants to a degree which prolific 
nature readily supplies. It is therefore not sur- 
prising that people take life easily. They need 
but little clothing in their warm climate, and no 
fuel except for cooking. Fish are easily caught 
in the sea and the innumerable streams. The 
banana, cocoanut, betel, mango, pomelo, or- 
ange, jackfruit, and lime grow with little or no 
cultivation, while the simplest tillage suffices for 
abundant yields of rice and vegetables. As for 
a house, one can be built of the ever-present 
bamboo and thatched with attap in a couple of 
days and at practically no cost. 

The population is so small for the area of the Distribution 
country that there is no such struggle for exist- 
ence as that which developed the vigor of the 
Pilgrim Fathers on the rocky hillsides of New 
England, or of the Chinese on those densely pop- 
ulated plains where the individual must toil 
alertly and incessantly or starve. The bitter 
poverty of China and Korea is unknown in Siam. 
The typical Siamese is sleek and well-fed, and 
he wears more gold and silver ornaments than 
any other native of Asia, even naked urchins 
playing in the streets being adorned with solid 
silver anklets, wristlets, and necklaces. 

In these circumstances, we marvel not that 



168 SIAM 

Extraordi- the people are so backward, but that they are so 
nary Ad- forward, and that they have made improvements 
which cannot be paralleled in any other Asi- 
atic country except Japan. In China, Korea, 
and the Philippines, there are improvements 
where foreigners have made them. But in 
Chieng Mai we were driven for hours over roads 
which were an amazement and a delight after 
the ridges and hollows which are euphemisti- 
cally called roads in China. At Pitsanuloke, 
250 miles from Bangkok, the neat whitewashed 
picket fences lining the river for more than a 
mile, the well-kept lawns of the public build- 
ings, and the residences of the officials would 
greatly surprise a traveller who had expected 
to find barbarians in this interior region of 
Siam. At Ke Kan, where we stopped for the 
night, there is not a single foreigner, but we 
strolled for a long distance on a level, beauti- 
fully shaded, though narrow, street along the 
river bank. We saw a sign bearing the word 
" Post-office " in English, Siamese, and Chinese. 
We passed a telegraph office, and on the ve- 
randa of the magistrate's residence we saw two 
bicycles. One Sunday we camped near a ham- 
let in the heart of a mighty forest, about as far 
from civilization, one might suppose, as it would 
be easy to get. But in the police station we 
found a telephone connecting with the telegraph 
office in Chieng Mai, so that, though we were 
12,000 miles away from home and 600 miles in 
the interior of Farther India, we could have 
flashed a message to any point in Europe or 



THE PEOPLE 169 

America. The government postal system, in- 
augurated in 1884, now extends all over the 
country, and in the correspondence of a dozen 
years with the missionaries in various parts of 
Siam and Laos, letters have seldom miscarried. 

The police stations are models of neatness — Police 
spotlessly white buildings in well-kept grounds, 
adorned with carefully tended flower beds and 
potted plants. A new system of accounts and 
auditing is reducing to order the hitherto hope- 
lessly confused finances of the country. A 
Bureau of Forestry has stopped the prodigal 
wastefulness of timber lands. Legal procedure 
is being reformed, so that an accused man can 
now obtain justice in the courts. The prisons 
are being remodelled. We inspected one in Siam 
and one in Laos, and found clean, well-fed pris- 
oners in roomy, well-ventilated wards. Free 
public schools have been opened all over the Schools 
land, and several have good buildings, foreign 
desks, and an abundance of maps, though the 
teachers are inferior to those in mission schools. 
A royal decree, dated February, 1899, made 
Sunday a legal holiday. It is not strictly ob- 
served, but it can hardly be more of a dead let- 
ter than similar laws in some parts of America 
and Europe. Telephones are numerous in 
Bangkok. Trolley cars run through the streets. 
An electric-light plant illuminates the King's 
palace. Manufacturing motors and automobiles 
are coming into use, and thirteen of the twenty- 
six steam rice mills of the city have their own 
electric plants, as have also the Bangkok Dock 



170 



SIAM 



Company, two forts, five naval vessels, and the 
navy yard. 

Bicycles A few missionaries brought their bicycles 

with them. The Siamese were keenly inter- 
ested, and when, in 1896, an American dentist 
imported several wheels to sell, they were 
quickly bought. Now there are 3000 wheels 
in Bangkok alone. The King frequently rides 
one, and the Minister of the Interior is presi- 
dent of a bicycle club of 400 members. Chieng 
Mai, Laos, is said to have more in proportion 
to the population than any other city in the 
country. 

Railroads Three railroads are in operation, one a narrow- 

gauge from Bangkok to Paknam, another a broad- 
gauge of 163 miles from Bangkok to Korat, and 
the third from Bangkok to Petchaburi. Most 
important of all is a trunk-line from Bangkok 
to Lakawn, Laos. It was projected many years 
ago, but the Siamese are not persistent, and the 
construction might have been delayed indefi- 
nitely if the Shan rebellion of 1902 had not 
rudely reminded the government that its valu- 
able possessions in the north might be seriously 
jeopardized long before a Siamese army could 
march 600 miles over a roadless country, or be 
poled in boats up a shallow river. Since then, 
construction has been pushed with all speed, 
and the line is now in operation over half way. 
Soon the tedious river journey of six weeks — 
it once took Dr. Wilson 108 days — will be 
cut down to two days. The resultant changes 
can be easily imagined. Everywhere tickets, 



THE PEOPLE 171 

signs, and notices are printed in English and 
Siamese. 

The younger Siamese are eager to learn, and Desire for 
they not only flock to the mission schools, but Education 
numbers of the more ambitious go to Europe. 
Some have gone to Germany, Denmark, and 
Russia, but most of them have preferred Eng- 
land. Several of the famous English schools 
and universities usually have one or more Siam- 
ese students. There are a few in the United 
States, two having recently been enrolled in a 
Western university. 

It is significant that Siamese students abroad 
have no difficulty in maintaining equality with 
foreigners in the class room. Mr. Verney says 
that when they first went to the famous Harrow 
School in England, the Head Master said to him : 
" You are trying an extraordinary experiment in Character 
sending young Siamese to Harrow, and you are 
wonderfully sanguine in supposing that they 
can adapt themselves to our public school life;" 
but shortly before his death he spoke of the re- 
markable success they had achieved, and said 
that there was not a master at Harrow who 
would not gladly welcome them to his house. 

All this, left without qualification, might give 
a wrong impression, for even more than in Japan 
foreign civilization is a veneer. It has as yet 
no solid basis in character. The real life of the 
people has not been so essentially modified as 
their modern improvements might lead one to 
suppose. 

The King is, undoubtedly, next to the Mi- 



172 



SIAM 



Government kado of Japan, the most enlightened and pro- 
gressive monarch in Asia, and he has a few 
capable men who sympathize with his views 
and energetically assist him in executing them, 
such as Prince Damrong, Minister of the Inte- 
rior ; Prince Devawongse, Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, and some of the Commissioners. But 
his Majesty and these officials are far in ad- 
vance of the rest of the nation. There is no 
middle class to give that substantial support to 
reform movements which has been the salvation 
of England and America. There are practically 
but two classes, the high and the low. The 
revolutionary changes have come from above 
instead of from beneath, as in Europe, and 
they have not penetrated the masses of the 
people. The King is simply trying to fasten 
the fruits of Christian civilization on to the 
dead tree of a Buddhist nation. The effort 
should not be criticised. It is well meant, and 
it is beneficial so far as it goes. It is unques- 
tionably doing much to open up Siam to the 
influences of the outside world. 

But no civilization can endure which rests 
on an unstable foundation in morals. Has Siam 
an unstable foundation ? The most cursory 
glance beneath the surface will show that it 
has. Home and society are what one might 
expect where polygamy and concubinage are 
openly recognized. Missionaries find the great- 
est difficulty in convincing the native Chris- 
tians that immorality is something more than a 
venial sin. Boarding schools for girls have to 



Unstable 
Foundation 
of Society 



THE PEOPLE 173 

be unceasingly watched, and a great majority 
of the cases of discipline in the church are for 
violation of the seventh commandment. 

While public drunkenness is not conspicu- intemper- 
ous, there is a great deal of drinking, and the ance 
"Spirit Farmer," who has the government con- 
cession for the manufacture and sale of liquor, 
is one of the mighty men in every community. 
Scotch whiskey, French brandy, and Australian 
beer are everywhere. We saw shops with rows 
of foreign bottles in the remotest towns, and 
several times in Bangkok we read the English 
sign : " Place for the Drinking of the Delight- 
ful Juice." Some of the Siamese nobles who 
were educated abroad have learned not only 
European manners but European intemperance, 
and one of the highest judges of the land has 
died as the result of excessive drinking which 
he began in England. 

The cigarette and betel nut are universally Smoking 
used, not only by men, but by women and chil- 
dren. The tobacco is mild and is smoked very 
slowly. Our carriers in the jungle would take 
two or three puffs and then thrust their cigar- 
ettes into holes in the lobes of their ears. 
There the cigarettes would remain for an hour 
or two, when one would be relighted, puffed a 
few times more, and then returned to the ear. 
Sometimes our men would carry three half-con- 
sumed cigarettes at once, one in each ear and 
one at the top of the ear, as an American clerk 
carries a pen. Betel-nut chewing so stains the 
teeth and lips that it is a disgusting habit to 



174 



SIAM 



Bangkok 



Lack of 
Sanitation 



Population 



Roads and 
Canals 



a foreigner, but the dark-red color is highly 
prized by the Siamese, and physicians told me 
that the habit is not so deleterious to health 
as the tobacco habit in America. Opium 
smoking is not common, except among the Chi- 
nese. Gambling is the national vice. We 
shall refer to this in another connection. The 
traveller in Siam quickly learns to love the peo- 
ple for their hospitality and good nature, but 
he sees indubitable evidences of their need o± a 
vital regenerative faith. 

Bangkok, the capital and chief city of Siam, 
lies upon both sides of the Me Nam River, 
about twenty miles from the sea. The site is 
low and swampy. Nothing but the current of 
the river, aided by the tide, keeps the city from 
being depopulated by epidemics. The govern- 
ment is doing much to lessen the dangers of the 
situation by studying prevention and sanitation. 
It employs a foreign medical inspector, and it 
cooperates with the medical missionaries and 
freely adopts their recommendations. 

The population is variously estimated. The 
American Minister, the Hon. Hamilton King, 
says that the population is nearly a million. 
Almost all the races and tribes in Siam are 
represented, so that the visitor finds the streets 
filled with a motley throng. 

Some excellent thoroughfares have been laid 
out in recent years and others are projected ; 
but the chief thoroughfare is the river. Its 
broad surface is crowded with canoes, launches, 
houseboats, and foreign ships, while the splendid 



THE PEOPLE 175 

private steam yacht of the King and the gun- 
boats of the Royal Navy add to the picturesque- 
ness of the scene. Numerous creeks and canals 
run in on both sides and are used as highways 
by innumerable small boats. Bangkok is often 
called the Venice of Asia. 

Trade and commerce are represented by scores Commerce 
of steam rice and saw mills and by thousands of 
shops and offices, including several large Eu- 
ropean and Chinese firms. Four clubs, three 
consulates, nine legations, and the Court of 
Siam make the city a centre of social as well 
as political activity. 

Chief interest naturally attaches to the King's The Palace 
palace. The royal enclosure occupies an exten- 
sive section of the upper part of the city on the 
east side of the river, and includes several 
splendid buildings which would grace a Eu- 
ropean capital. There are some famous wats, 
too, of superb beauty and costly decorations. 
One contains the celebrated statue of the sleep- 
ing Buddha, another the Emerald Buddha, and 
still another several relics of Buddha. A pagoda 
with a carpet made of pure silver tape is the 
receptacle of a richly inlaid cabinet in which is 
preserved with jealous care the sacred Pali 
Manuscripts. The Royal Library occupies a 
fine building, and contains not only rare Bud- 
dhist books in beautiful and expensive bindings, 
but many modern books and periodicals in 
English. 

Every visitor eagerly inquires for " the white white Eie- 
elephants " about which so much has been P hants 



176 SIAM 

written. But disappointment is invariable. 
The elephants are not white, except in the eyes, 
and a few light-colored spots about the ears and 
the top of the head. The rest of the body is 
almost as dark as that of an ordinary elephant. 
White-eyed elephants, however, are very rare 
and are highly prized. They are the exclusive 
property of the King, and when a wild one is 
caught, it must be sent to the royal stables. 
Of the five that we saw, three were so savage 
that the keeper would not allow us to touch 
them, but the others were very tame, and saluted 
us by raising their trunks ; one kneeled and 
bowed her head to the ground before us. 

Ayuthia Bangkok is the only large city in the country, 

but there are several other places of considerable 
interest. North of Bangkok is Ayuthia, the 
second city of the kingdom. As the ancient 
capital, it is a place of historic interest. Ruins 
do not last long in a humid, tropical climate, 
but the visitor to Ayuthia can still find very 
interesting traces of former splendor, including 
an old temple and an enormous statue of Bud- 
dha, which is famous. A considerable popula- 
tion centres in Ayuthia. Indeed, as we travelled 
up the Me Nam River in a houseboat, we were 
impressed by the fact that, for about 75 miles 
from Bangkok, both banks are practically con- 
tinuous village streets, while above that point, 
villages are numerous away up to Paknampo, 
204 miles from the capital. 

Korat Korat, at the terminus of the northeastern 

branch of the railway, Paknampo at the junction 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 177 

of the Me Ping with the Me Nam, Pitsanuloke 
on the upper Me Nam, Raheng on the Me Ping, 
where the overland mail runners from Moul- 
mein, Burma, strike the river, and Chieng Mai, 
Lakawn, Nan and Chiieng Rai in Laos, are 
the most important places. Chieng Mai and 
Lakawn, in particular, are influential centres. 
Both are attractive cities, the former with 
100,000 people, spread over an area of about 
18 square miles. The latter has only 20,000, 
of whom 100 are Chinese ; but with the com- 
pletion of the railroad, Lakawn will probably 
become the most important centre in Laos. 

South of Bangkok, the leading towns are other 
Ratburi and Petchaburi, the latter being the Towns 
terminus of the railway, Chantaboon, so long 
occupied by the French, and Nakawn, 400 miles 
from Bangkok on the Peninsula. 

HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 

While the Siamese boast of their antiquity Antiquity 
as a nation, there is no authentic history that 
runs back of 1350. This is quite convenient, 
for the Kings are supposed to be lineal descend- 
ants of Buddha and the people of the first dis- 
ciples of Buddha, so that no one can prove to 
the satisfaction of the Siamese that these beliefs 
are unfounded. For the same reason, many 
miracles in those legends are implicitly ac- 
cepted. Buddha is represented as doing the 
most amazing things, and the imagination of 
the people is stirred by the alleged victorious 



178 



SIAM 



Changes of 
Rule 



Present 
King 



wars of their ancestors and by tales of sup- 
pliant embassies, brilliant alliances, and extraor- 
dinary manifestations of supernatural power. 

The territory now covered by Siam was for- 
merly divided among several petty kingdoms. 
There were many wars between the Siamese 
and neighboring kingdoms, principally those 
of the Pegu and the Laos. The Siamese were 
generally victorious, and by 1350 had gradually 
extended their power until they ruled over a 
very extensive territory, their capitol being at 
Ayuthia. Then for two centuries peace pre- 
vailed ; but in 1556, war again broke out with 
the Peguans, who succeeded in defeating their 
former conquerors. The change of power, how- 
ever, was but temporary, and the Siamese soon 
regained ascendancy. ' The Burmese invasion 
of 1759 overturned their power for a time, but 
in 1782 the Siamese line once more regained 
the throne. 

The present King is the fifth sovereign of the 
Chakrakri djmasty. He was born September 
20, 1853, and ascended the throne on the death 
of his father, King Mongkut, in 1868, a regency 
being established until he became of age. He 
rejoices in the name of Somdet Prabart, Prah 
Paramender, Mahar Chulalongkorn, Baudin- 
taratape, Mahar Monkoot, Rartenah Rarcha- 
wewongse Racher Nekaradome Chatarantah 
Baromah Mahar Chakrapart, Prah Chula 
Chaumklow, Chow yu huah. Those who feel 
that life is short call him simply King Chu- 
lalongkorn. He was the first monarch of Siam 



HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT 179 

to visit other lands, and his travels in Europe 
in 1897 and 1907, and also to India and Java, 
greatly broadened his mind. He has abolished 
the abject custom of prostrations at court, in- 
troduced European dress, established a royal 
museum, adorned his capital with excellent 
streets, public gardens, and a group of state 
buildings which would be considered handsome 
anywhere. 

An interesting feature of the policy of the The King's 
Kins: is the commissionership. The kingdom, c ° mmls ~ 

& r a _ . sioners 

as already noted, includes several smaller king- 
doms and provinces, each with its hereditary 
ruler. These petty potentates were formerly 
supreme in their respective regions. Corrupt, 
oppressive, and accustomed to regard the people 
and all their possessions as personal property, 
these feudal lords were a formidable obstacle 
to the King's plans for administrative reform. 
So he adopted the plan of sending a commis- 
sioner to reside at each provincial capital to 
" advise " with the local governor- and to form 
a medium of communication between him and 
the King. The latter in turn transmitted his 
wishes to the commissioner and gave him a 
force of gendarmes, equipped with modern 
guns, to execute them. The outcome has been 
the gradual transference of power from the 
local lord to the commissioner, the unifying 
of administration and the strengthening of the 
power of the King, who is now the absolute 
monarch of the whole kingdom. The local 
prince, particularly in Laos, is accorded much 



180 



SIAM 



The King 
Absolute 



His 
Successors 



ostensible honor, as in the case of the native 
princes under British rule in India ; but, as in 
India also, he finds obedience to his " adviser " 
conducive to health and prosperity. 

The King is therefore the source and centre 
of all power. In theory, he is the owner of the 
whole country and all its inhabitants. Practi- 
cally, however, he has voluntarily introduced 
some constitutional features. He administers 
affairs through ten departments of state. The 
heads of these departments form a Council of 
Ministers. There are also a Council of State and 
a Privy Council. The King has thus surrounded 
himself with a considerable number of his wisest 
subjects, and he freely advises with them. 

The enlightened and progressive policy of the 
King will probably be followed by his successor, 
for the Crown Prince Maha Vajiravudh, born 
January 1, 1881, is a young man of many excel- 
lent qualities. From 1893 to 1902 he studied 
in England. Before returning to his native 
land, he visited several European capitals, and 
journeyed home by the way of the United 
States and Japan. Nor is he the only prince 
who has been educated abroad. Several of his 
many brothers, for the royal family of a po- 
lygamous country is numerous, have studied 
in England, Germany, Denmark, and Russia. 
" There is no royal family in the world of 
which the members have had such varied ex- 
perience in almost every country in Europe." 1 

1 Frederick Verney, late Councillor of the Siamese Lega- 
tion, London. 



MISSIONS 181 

PROTESTANT MISSIONS 

The beginnings of Protestant missionary Period of 
effort in Siam date back to 1818 and to the Be s innin S s 
honored name of Mrs. Ann Hasseltine Judson, 
of Burma. She never visited Siam, but she 
met some Siamese in Rangoon, and through 
them heard such accounts of their country that 
she became deeply interested, learned the lan- 
guage, and translated a tract, a catechism, and 
the gospel by Matthew. The English Baptist 
Mission press at Serampore printed the cate- 
chism in 1819, "the first Christian book ever 
printed in Siamese." 

The first Protestant missionaries to visit First Mis- 
Siam were the famous Dr. Gutzlaff of the sionaries 
Netherlands Missionary Society, and the Rev. 
Jacob Tomlin, of the London Missionary Society, 
who came to Bangkok from Singapore in 1828, 
and began work among the Chinese. Ill health 
forced Mr. Tomlin to return to Singapore the 
following year, and Dr. Gutzlaff left for China 
in 1831. He baptized only one convert in 
Siam, a Chinese named Boon-tai, but he had 
set in motion a force which did not stop with 
his departure. Not only did he leave some 
translations, but he and Mr. Tomlin had united 
in an appeal to the American churches to un- 
dertake permanent work in this needy field. 
That appeal was conveyed to America in 1829 
by Captain Coffin, of the American trading 
vessel which brought those physical freaks, 
the Siamese Twins. 



182 



SIAM 



THE CONGREGATIONAL MISSION 



Rev. David 
Abeel 



Disasters 



Lack of 

Apparent 

Success 



Rev. Jesse 
Caswell 



The first Board to respond was the American 
Board, which sent the Rev. David Abeel from 
Canton ; he arrived June 39, 1831, shortly after 
Dr. Gutzlaff had left. Ill health compelled 
him to leave November 5, 1832 ; but in 1834 and 
1835, seventeen missionaries, including wives, 
arrived, and for a time everything looked 
bright. 

But soon disasters began to come. Mr. Ben- 
ham was drowned. Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Brad- 
ley, and Mr. French died, and Mr. Robinson, 
broken in health, left only to be buried at St. 
Helena on his way home. In 1846, the Amer- 
ican Board, whose main thought from the 
beginning had been for the Chinese rather 
than the Siamese, concluded that the time 
had come when the former could be reached 
in China more effectively than in Siam, and it 
therefore transferred Messrs. Peet and Johnson 
to Foo-chow. The few remaining missionaries 
struggled on among the Siamese; in 1848 Mr. 
Caswell died, and when ill health drove out Mr. 
Hemenway and his family in December, 1849, 
the mission of the American Board was closed. 
Fifteen years of hard labor had not resulted in 
any baptisms, but the toil of those devoted 
missionaries, in that hot, steaming climate, 
formed an essential part of the foundation 
upon which others were to build. 

Two members in particular of this early 
American Board Mission did much to make 



MISSIONS 183 

possible the subsequent development of Siam. 
One of these was the Rev. Jesse Caswell, who 
had arrived in 1840, and whose ability and wis- 
dom so impressed Prince Chow Fah Mongkut, 
that this future King chose him as his special 
instructor, and for a year and a half (1845- 
1846) studied as a docile pupil of Mr. Caswell. 
The enlightened and progressive policy of 
King Mongkut, which was the real beginning 
of modern Siam and which gave the widest 
opportunity to all missionary work, was due in 
no small degree to the training that he re- 
ceived from this missionary of the American 
Board. 

The other notable missionary of the American Dr. Daniel 
Board was Dr. Daniel B. Bradley. He was a B * Bradle y 
man of unusual gifts, and speedily obtained 
large influence. He brought the first printing- 
press to Siam in 1836. Finding that multitudes 
of the Siamese died annually from the small- 
pox, he introduced vaccination in 1840. When 
the American Board withdrew its missionaries 
from Siam, he felt that he could not leave the 
people to whose spiritual welfare he had con- 
secrated his life. He transferred his connec- 
tion to the American Missionary Association, 
and though the Association soon gave up the 
field, he continued his work until his death 
in Bangkok, June 23, 1893. He was remark- 
able alike as a physician, a scholar, and a mis- 
sionary, and his name is still venerated by the 
Siamese. 



184 



SIAM 



THE BAPTIST MISSION 



Rev. John T. 
Jones 



First Con- 
verts 



Discourage- 
ments 



The American Baptist Missionary Union also 
had a part in these early efforts to give the 
Gospel to the Siamese. The Baptist mission- 
aries in Burma answered the appeal of Dr. 
Gutzlaff and Mr. Tomlin by sending the Rev. 
and Mrs. John T. Jones, who arrived in Bang- 
kok on March 25, 1833. The Rev. William Dean 
came in 1835. He was in great sorrow, for the 
young wife who had left Boston with him a 
year before had died in Singapore during the 
weary months of waiting for a steamer to take 
them to Bangkok. 

The Baptists, like the Congregationalists, felt 
that the most inviting opportunities at that 
period were among the Chinese in Bangkok, 
though some work was done among the Siamese. 
The first converts, however, were Chinese. 
Results came slowly, but by 1848 sixty per- 
sons had been added to the little church. Mr. 
and Mrs. Reid and Mr. and Mrs. Davenport, 
who arrived in July, 1836, brought the first 
printing-press to Siam, and before the end of 
that year the printed page began giving the 
people the good news of the Gospel. 

Reinforcements came in 1840 and 1843, but 
sickness and death made sad havoc among the 
little band of workers, and the Siamese showed 
little disposition to accept Christ, the major- 
ity of the converts being Chinese. When the 
Anglo-Chinese treaty of 1842 opened five ports 
of China, the Baptist Missionary Union, like the 



MISSIONS 185 

American Board, decided that the mighty empire 
in the north offered the more promising oppor- 
tunities. Part of the Siam force was accordingly 
transferred to China. The mission was not at 
once given up, however, and from time to time 
recruits were added, until all together thirty-two 
men and women had been connected with the 
mission, and considerable work inaugurated. 
But the difficulties were felt to be great. One 
by one, the number of missionaries diminished 
by death and resignation and transfer, until, by 
1871, Dr. Dean was the only Baptist missionary 
left, and on his lamented death, in 1884, the 
mission was finally closed. 

While no distinctive work among the Siamese Permanent 
has been done since 1869, a small work among R^ 111 * 8 
the Chinese continues. There are now two 
Chinese Baptist churches in Siam. One of them, 
the Watkok Church, has 70 members, and is an 
active force in a part of Bangkok that is thickly 
settled by immigrants from Swatow. There are 
also two small churches among the Mons or 
Peguans, a section of the Talains who have 
entered Siam from Burma. All together, there 
are four Baptist churches in Siam, with an 
aggregate membership of 138, under the care of 
native helpers superintended by H. Adamson, 
M.D., a resident Eurasian physician in private 
practice in Bangkok, who is a devoted Christian. 

The Baptist mission in Siam left many gra- 
cious influences and aided not a little in the 
pioneer effort to gain a foothold for the Gospel. 
Some of the missionaries who afterward became 



186 SIAM 

prominent in China began their careers in Siam. 
Among these were the famous William Ashmore 
of Swatow, Josiah Goddard of Ningpo, and J. 
L. Schuck of Canton. 

PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS 

The withdrawal of the Baptist and Congre- 
gational missionaries left the Presbyterian 
Mission the only one in the field. The Pres- 
byterian movement for the evangelization of 
Rev. R. w. Siam had begun with the Rev. R. W. Orr, a 
° rr missionary from China, who made a visit of in- 

quiry to Bangkok in November, 1838, and then 
strongly urged the Presbyterian Board to open 
a mission there. The Board complied by send- 
ing the Rev. and Mrs. W. P. Buell in 1840. 
The failure of Mrs. Buell's health obliged them 
to leave in 1844, and three years passed before a 
successor arrived ; but in 1847 the Rev. Stephen 
Mattoon and Samuel R. House, M.D., arrived, 
and permanent work was inaugurated. Mr. and 
Mrs. Mattoon were privileged to labor in Siam 
for nineteen years, and Dr. and Mrs. House for 
twenty-nine years. 
Dangers of An incident in the career of Dr. House shows 
Tourmg fae quality of the man. One day, while in the 
country on an itinerating tour, he was attacked 
by a rogue elephant, which threw him to the 
ground and with one of its tusks ripped his 
body open so that the intestines protruded. Dr. 
House's medical knowledge enabled him to see 
at once that the wound would be fatal unless 



MISSIONS 187 

instantly treated. There was no one near but 
a few frightened natives, so the sorely wounded 
man put his intestines back with his own hands 
and took a sufficient number of stitches to close 
the wound temporarily. Then he instructed the 
trembling natives to carry him to the statiop. 
He suffered long, but his first aid to himself 
had been so prompt that he finally recovered. 
The annals of war do not record greater forti- 
tude. 

Mrs. House interested herself in the education 
of the girls of Bangkok. She founded the first 
school for girls in Siam, and the Harriet House 
School for Girls in Bangkok is her memorial. 

Mr. Mattoon and Dr. House labored for two Reenforce- 
years before reinforcements came. In 1849 they ments 
were joined by the Rev. and Mrs. Stephen 
Bush. Their stay, however, was brief, Mrs. 
Bush dying in 1851 and Mr. Bush leaving the 
field with impaired health in 1853. The First 
Presbyterian Church in Siam was organized 
August 29, 1819. There were no native Chris- 
tians connected with the mission at that time, 
and the membership of the church was con- 
fined to the missionary families. A Chinese 
teacher, Qua Kieng, had been baptized in 1844, 
and another Chinese, a young man from Hainan, 
in 1851, but no Siamese convert gladdened the 
missionaries till 1859, nineteen years after the 
arrival of Mr. Buell. " With tears of joy," Dr. 
House wrote, "the missionaries received the first 
fruits of labor among the Siamese." Nai Chune 
was the name of the man who thus headed the 



188 



SIAM 



The Difficul- 
ties of the 
Situation 



The Hostile 
Attitude of 
the King 



roll of Siamese Christians. It required no small 
courage to cut loose from all the associations of 
his lifetime and to stand alone among his coun- 
trymen for Christ. Bat he proved faithful. 

Many difficulties attended this pioneer mis- 
sion work. The slow and wretchedly uncom- 
fortable sailing ships of those days made Siam 
much more isolated and difficult to reach than 
it is to-day. The climate, always trying to a 
foreigner, was doubly injurious when the mis- 
sionaries were forced to live in native houses ; 
when supplies of native food and clothing could 
not be obtained except at long intervals and 
great cost ; and when there was no experience 
of predecessors to guide the new arrivals in 
adapting themselves to the climate, in learning 
the language, and in getting into touch with 
the people. 

The attitude of the government, too, was 
decidedly hostile. The King, a strong but 
narrow-minded and fanatical man, used his 
influence to the utmost to thwart the mission- 
aries. He opposed them not because they were 
missionaries, but because they were foreigners. 
When an embassy from the United States ar- 
rived in March, 1850, to open friendly negotia- 
tions with a view to a treaty, the King refused 
to receive it. Even England's ambassador, the 
famous Sir James Brooke, who came in August 
of the same year, fared no better. Sir James 
felt so outraged by the insulting treatment he 
received that he sailed away in a rage, threat- 
ening dire punishment. Indeed, the policy of 



MISSIONS 189 

the King so irritated England that for a time 

war appeared imminent. 

The missionaries were not subjected to per- Personal 

sonal violence, but several times the danger 5? n f?. rs . t0 

mi , °, the Mission- 

seemed great. The unfriendly attitude of the aries 

government and the ruling classes was so well 
known and was exerted in such effective ways, 
that obstacles confronted the little band of mis- 
sionaries at every step. No Siamese landlord 
dared to rent or sell them property, and they 
were often sorely beset for suitable shelter. 
Finally, one Siamese, braver than the rest, sold 
a site, and the money was actually paid over. 
But before building operations could be begun, 
a high official declared the sale void and forced 
the owner to return the money, the reason 
given being that "the residence of foreigners 
there was contrary to the custom of the coun- 
try." When Dr. Bradley's medical work be- 
gan to win the favor of the common people, the 
Buddhist priests made the odd complaint that, 
if these foreigners were allowed to show kind- 
ness to everybody every day, their merit would 
soon outstrip that of the best men of the king- 
dom. Once the missionaries were ordered to 
leave their premises and had to find shelter as 
best they could, — one family in a houseboat 
and another with the Baptist missionaries, while 
Dr. Bradley sought temporary refuge with a 
friendly English merchant, Mr. Robert Hunter. 
The few native converts were fiercely perse- 
cuted, the helpers were imprisoned, and it looked 
as if the end of all mission work had come. 



190 



SIAM 



Changes for 
the Better 



Favor of the 
Throne 



Suddenly, when the prospect was blackest, 
the hostile King died (April 3, 1851), and his 
half brother, Prince Chow Fah Mongkut, as- 
cended the throne. For twenty-seven years 
he had lived quietly in a Buddhist monastery, 
studying and thinking and showing rare open- 
ness of mind and heart to all good influences. 
He was in every way superior in character to 
his predecessor, who had seized the royal power 
years before. When the missionaries from the 
West arrived, this priestly prince had welcomed 
them and, as we have already noted, engaged 
Mr. Caswell to instruct him in Western learn- 
ing. Not only this, but he gave the missionary 
free use of a room on the temple grounds for 
daily preaching services after the royal pupil 
had taken his lesson. 

The new King showed himself as friendly to 
missionaries on the throne as he had been in a 
monastery. He invited them to his palace and 
showed them many kindnesses. Instantly oppo- 
sition vanished. Ground was secured without 
further difficulty, and buildings were erected. 
The missionaries wrote : " The princes and 
nobles now courted our society ; our teachers 
and servants returned to their places ; throngs 
came to our houses to receive books and to talk 
with us respecting their contents ; and we were 
permitted to go where we chose, and to speak 
in the name of Jesus with the confidence that 
we should not be avoided, but obtain a respect- 
ful hearing." 

The King even permitted some of the mis- 



MISSIONS 



191 



sionary women to enter the royal harem and 
teach. Missionary teaching was a little too 
serious for the frivolous ladies within the royal 
enclosure, and most of them did not prove very 
apt pupils. But several were impressed by the 
words of their visitors and gladly invited them 
to their rooms and read the tracts which were 
given them. 

The work now made steady progress. New 
arrivals strengthened the missionary force. 
The Christian Boys' High School was opened 
in 1852, and the Harriet House School for Girls 
in 1873. In 1860, Petchaburi, whose Governor 
had, in 1843, treated Mr. Buell with contempt- 
uous indignity, gave polite attention to Dr. 
House, Mr. Telford, and Mr. Wilson, and in the 
following year a station was formally established 
there. Ayuthia was made a station in 1872, 
though it has since been merged into the Bang- 
kok field. 1878 saw a second church organized 
in Bangkok. 

The death of King Mongkut in 1868 was 
deeply mourned ; but his son, the present King, 
has continued the broad and tolerant policy of 
his father. A proclamation of religious liberty 
was issued in 1870. 

The influence of the missionaries was recog- 
nized on every hand. In 1878, the King ap- 
pointed one of the members of the mission, the 
Rev. S. G. McFarland, who had come to Siam 
in 1860, Superintendent of Public Instruction 
and President of the Royal College at Bangkok, 
the first college to be opened in Siam. Dr. and 



Access to 
the Royal 
Palace 



Progress of 
the Work 



Further 

Religious 

Toleration 



192 



SIAM 



Stations 



Scope of 
the Work 



Mrs. McFarland were freely permitted to use 
their enlarged opportunities for Christ. Their 
son, the present Superintendent of the Govern- 
ment Hospital in Bangkok, works in close sym- 
pathy with the missionaries and has helped 
them in inestimable ways. 

The Presbyterian Board now has in lower 
Siam, exclusive of the Laos Mission, five sta- 
tions : Bangkok, Petchaburi, Ratburi, opened in 
1889, Nakawn Sri Tamarat and Pitsanuloke, 
both of which were opened in 1899. The story 
of the opening of Nakawn is peculiarly interest- 
ing. The good-will of the people made it 
easy to secure land, a residence was soon 
erected, and since then a fine hospital has been 
built, the King himself having made a liberal 
contribution. 

The total force of the Presbyterian Mission in 
lower Siam consists at this writing of thirty- 
seven missionaries and twenty-nine native 
workers. There are seven organized churches, 
eight schools, four hospitals which treat 
25,000 patients annually and a printing-press 
which issues, during the same period, about 
5,000,000 pages. The work includes the Chi- 
nese as well as the Siamese, the former being 
found in all the schools, hospitals, and churches. 
The pastor of the First Church of Bangkok is 
a Chinese, and almost the entire membership 
of the Third Church (Rajawong) is Chinese. 
The blending of the two races is such — prac- 
tically every Chinese having a Siamese wife and 
half-caste children — that it would now be quite 



MISSIONS 193 

impracticable to undertake to separate them in 
mission work. 

Four of the mission institutions in Bangkok Christian 
have special interest for the visitor. One is school 
the Christian Boys' High School. Its hand- 
some site was paid for by gifts of the Siamese 
themselves, the King heading the subscription 
and his nobles and people joining him in sub- 
stantial evidences of their appreciation of this 
noble institution. The buildings, erected by 
American funds, are excellent. In spite of the • 
fact that the School charges fees which make it 
wholly self-supporting, except for salaries of the 
missionaries, it is crowded to its utmost capacity, 
and could easily have many more students. 
The Siamese opinion of the School is indicated, 
not only by the gifts and fees referred to, but 
by the statement of a Cabinet officer that the 
government would be glad to take into its 
employ every graduate that the School can turn 
out. Character, training, and efficiency count 
in Siam as elsewhere. 

The second institution is the Harriet House 
School for Girls. 

The influence of this School is very great. School for 
Half of its pupils come from the families of Girls 
noblemen. Several are royal princesses, nieces 
of the King. Others are daughters of govern- 
ors and ministers to European capitals. The 
entire female teaching force of the Bangkok 
public government schools, thirteen in number, 
are graduates of Harriet House, twelve of them 
being Christians. At the recent government 



194 SIAM 

examinations, the School elicited the outspoken 
admiration of the Prince Director-General of 
Public Instruction by excelling all other schools 
in the kingdom, including the Queen's Own 
College, in the proportion of pupils who credit- 
ably passed the examination. 
The Only The Bangkok press, founded in 1861, is the 

&iam m ^est e( l u ipP e( i institution of the kind in Siam, 
and, with the exception of a few gifts, its entire 
plant has been paid for out of its earnings. It 
publishes school and religious books, myriads of 
tracts, a monthly magazine, and all the issues in 
Siam of the American Bible Society, besides a 
great amount of job work for the government 
and private firms and individuals. It is the 
only press in Siam which confines itself to 
morally clean work, and it is thus a powerful 
influence for good in the business community. 
Other presses will print anything. This refuses 
opium, liquor, gambling, and like advertise- 
ments. 
A Native The Boon Itt Memorial is the centre of a 

Martyr far-reaching work for young men. The Rev. 

Boon Itt was a native Siamese of mixed Cam- 
bodian and Chinese blood, who was taken to 
America in his boyhood by Dr. House and 
educated at Williams College and Auburn 
Theological Seminary, and who then returned 
to Siam and engaged in Christian work. As 
the head of his " clan," whose family home is 
in Bangkok, he was widely known in the 
capital. Young men liked him and resorted to 
him for advice. The government repeatedly 



MISSIONS 195 

offered him lucrative posts, and a trading cor- 
poration in Laos was eager to employ him at a 
salary of §4000 gold. As a minister of Christ 
he received $650 and a humble native house, 
and he preferred being a preacher. His death 
from cholera in 1903 was greatly lamented. 
The Siamese raised funds for a centrally located 
site for a memorial, and an American commit- 
tee, headed by Williams and Auburn class- 
mates of Boon Itt's, erected the handsome 
building. 

One of the churches has an interesting his- A Noble 
tory. Several years ago, Phya Montri, a Si- Memorial 
amese nobleman of great influence, who was 
educated at Columbia College, New York, be- 
came interested in Christianity. After varied 
spiritual experiences, he was drifting away 
from Christ, when his beloved and only son 
suddenly died. In his grief, a missionary 
gently told him of the Good Shepherd who, 
finding that a sheep would not follow Him, 
took the lamb in His arms. The father's heart 
was deeply moved. He sketched an outline of 
the incident and had an artist paint it. We 
saw the picture in his house — a shepherd, with 
a face so kindly and sweet, a face like unto that 
of the Son of Man, carrying a lamb in his 
bosom, while afar off two sheep, which had been 
walking aw^ay from the shepherd, were, with 
wistful eyes, turning around to follow their 
loved one. Now this father, in grateful recog- 
nition of this spiritual call, gave 10,000 ticals 
to build a church. Something was added by 



196 



SIAM 



Beginnings 
in Laos 



Immediate 
Results 



other Christians, and a beautiful house of wor- 
ship was dedicated in 1903. 

The mission among the Laos began in 1867. 
Several years before this, the Rev. Daniel 
McGilvary, then stationed at Petchaburi, had 
become interested in a small village near the 
station, whose people spoke a different lan- 
guage and appeared to be distinct in many ways 
from the Siamese about them. Through them, 
he learned of the vast hill country to the north, 
from which their ancestors had come. He 
formed an ardent desire to know more of these 
people and to carry the Gospel to them. In 
1863, he and his colleague, the Rev. Jonathan 
Wilson, made a long tour of exploration to the 
Laos country. It was a journey into an abso- 
lutely unknown land. For months the devoted 
missionaries made their way up the Me Nam 
River, their half-naked boatmen wading, pull- 
ing, and pushing by turns in order to get the 
boat over sand bars and through rapids, until 
they finally arrived at Chieng Mai, 600 miles 
from Bangkok. Their report on their return 
was so enthusiastic that, in 1867, Mr. McGil- 
vary returned to Laos with his wife and founded 
the mission, and a year later Mr. and Mrs. Wil- 
son joined them. The visitor to Chieng Mai 
never fails to visit the bo tree, under whose 
wide-spreading branches Dr. and Mrs. McGil- 
vary lived for the first year of their stay. 

Results came more quickly than in Lower 
Siam. The missionaries were scholars, and 
they foretold the eclipse of August, 1868, a 



MISSIONS 197 

week before it occurred. The natives were pro- 
foundly impressed, and one of the ablest and 
most influential Buddhist scholars of Chieng 
Mai, Nan Inta, was converted. He became a 
Christian of great beauty and strength of char- 
acter, and labored indefatigably for Christ till 
his death in 1882. 

The conversion of Nan Inta was soon fol- Two noble 
lowed by that of seven others, and everything Mart y rs 
pointed to a rapid development of the work, 
when the governor of Chieng Mai began to 
persecute the Christians. Noi Su Ya and Nan 
Chai were arrested, and, on being brought be- 
fore the authorities, confessed that they had for- 
saken Buddhism. " The death-yoke was then 
put around their necks, and a small rope was 
passed through the holes in their ears (used for 
ear-rings by all natives) and carried tightly 
over the beam of a house. After being thus 
tortured all night, they were again examined 
in the morning; but, with a fortitude worthy 
of the noblest traditions of the early Church, 
steadfastly refused to deny their Saviour even 
in the very presence of death. They prepared 
for execution by a reverent prayer, closing 
with the words, w Lord Jesus, receive my 
spirit.' They were then taken to the jungle 
and clubbed to death. One of them, not dying 
quickly enough to suit the executioners, was 
thrust through the heart by a spear." The 
whole record eloquently testifies to the genu- 
ineness of faith and courage of fidelity on the 
part of these first martyrs of the Laos Church. 



198 



SIAM 



Persecution 
Ended 



Further Ad- 
vances 



Present 
Status 



The persecution, however, proved to be short. 
The hostile governor died, and his successor 
was less truculent. More converts were bap- 
tized. In 1878, another crisis occurred over 
the desire of two native Christians to be married 
by the missionaries without providing for the 
feast to evil spirits, as custom required. The 
relatives appealed to the magistrate, who sus- 
tained them and forbade the marriage. The mis- 
sionaries promptly sent a petition to the King 
in Bangkok, which resulted in a " Proclamation 
of Religious Liberty to the Laos." This ended 
all persecution. Chieng Mai became the centre 
of a widely extended work. It remained the 
only station, however, till 1885, when Dr. and 
Mrs. S. C. Peoples opened a station at Lakawn. 
Lampoon (since consolidated with Chieng Mai) 
was occupied in 1891, Pre in 1893 by Dr. and 
Mrs. W. A. Briggs, Nan in 1894 by Dr. and 
Mrs. Peoples, and Chieng Rai in 1897 by Mr. 
and Mrs. W. C. Dodd and Dr. and Mrs. C. H. 
Denman. Thus stations were located at the 
capitals of five of the six Laos states in Siam, 
the sixth, Luang Prabang, being inaccessible 
on account of French influence, as explained 
elsewhere. 

The mission has steadily and encouragingly 
developed, until now there are 44 missionaries, 
six hospitals and dispensaries treating 30,000 
patients annually, 26 schools, a printing-press, 
18 organized churches with 3168 communicants, 
and a much larger number of inquirers and 
adherents. 



MISSIONS 199 

Chieng Mai and Lakawn are the stations Work at 
where the largest work has been developed. Chieng Mai 
Here the institutional work centres. The 
Girls' Boarding School at Chieng Mai is as 
famous in the north as the Harriet House 
School for Girls is in the south. It has trained 
hundreds of girls who are now wives and 
mothers of the best men in Laos, while others 
are usefully employed as teachers and Bible 
women. The Prince Royal's College at Chieng 
Mai received its name from the Crown Prince, 
who, in January, 1906, personally laid the 
corner-stone of the new building with im- 
pressive ceremonies. 

The hospitals and boarding schools for boys Work at 
and girls at Lakawn are also doing a fine work, Lakawn 
though their equipment is not so large as that of 
the Chieng Mai schools. They have new build- 
ings, and their accommodations are fully taxed. 

The press at Chieng Mai is important as the 
only press in the world which uses the Laos 
language, so that it is the sole means for giving 
the Bible and a Christian literature to the Laos- 
speaking people. Twelve native workmen are 
employed under the supervision of a missionary, 
and though the equipment is far from large, the 
press exerts a wide influence not only through its 
distinctive missionary publications but through 
the relations which it sustains to the officials, 
who have all their printing done by it. Vice and 
intemperance can get no aid from the printed 
page in Laos, for the mission press will not 
print their books, circulars, or advertisements. 



200 



SIAM 



RESULTS AND INFLUENCE 



Results and 
Influence 



A Marvel- 
lous trans- 
formation 



While the people of Siani, from King to 
coolie, are kindly disposed toward the mission- 
aries, and while there is an almost entire absence 
of that opposition which has been encountered 
in some other lands, the number of converts 
has not been great, there being now only about 
4000 adult communicants connected with all 
the missions, and most of these are in Laos. 
A change in mission policy has undoubtedly 
affected numerical tables temporarily. Unlike 
Korea and Uganda, Siam did not have the ad- 
vantage of beginning after the necessity for 
self-support had become generally recognized, 
and, like most of the older missions, it had to 
reconstruct much of its work, in some cases 
being obliged to begin all over again. Ac- 
customed to a liberal use of all foreign money, 
the native Christians resented the new policy. 
The missionaries persisted, and to-day most of 
the schools, hospitals, churches, and native 
helpers are supported by the people. It is not 
fair, therefore, to contrast the present statis- 
tical tables with those of a decade ago, with- 
out taking this fact into consideration. The 
work is now on a sound basis. 

What Christ can do for these people is abun- 
dantly shown by the transformation which He 
has effected in the lives of those who have ac- 
cepted Him. The head chief of a village on the 
peninsula was notorious as a hard character. 
He was converted under the faithful preaching 



RESULTS 201 

of Dr. Dunlap. How do we know that the 
conversion was genuine ? The chief summoned 
all the people of his village, and announced to 
them his determination to follow Christ. Then 
he asked the forgiveness of those whom he had 
wronged. He brought out his bottles of liquor 
and broke them to pieces. He amazed his cred- 
itors by paying their claims in full. He put 
away all his wives and concubines, except his 
first wife, making provision for their support 
and that of their children, so that they might 
not suffer. Then, in the presence of all his 
people, he kneeled down and solemnly dedicated 
himself and all his possessions to the service of 
God. 

The Christian is a marked man among his 
fellows, distinguished not merely for his differ- 
ence in faith, but for his superior intelligence, 
morality, thrift, and integrity. No wonder that 
the governor of Puket says : " Wherever the 
Christian missionary settles, he brings good 
to the people. Progress, beneficial institutions, 
cleanliness, and uplifting of the people result 
from his labors;" while the high commissioner 
of the same province told Dr. Dunlap, in 1907, 
that he would give 5000 ticals for a hospital in 
Tap Teang and 10,000 ticals for one in Puket, if 
the missionary would open permanent stations. 

It should be noted, too, while the number of Social 
conversions has been comparatively small, the re . su] . ts of 
social results of missionary effort have been un- effort 
usually large. In most lands converts are 
the first permanent results of missionary labor, 



202 



SIAM 



Some Won- 
derful Testi- 
mony 



and social changes come later. But in Siain this 
order has been reversed. True, converts have 
not been lacking, but their number is small in 
comparison with the reforms which missionary 
influence has been the chief factor in producing. 
Indeed it is probable that missionary teaching 
nas been more influential in establishing the 
general policy and developing the public senti- 
ment of the country than in many lands where 
the number of converts has been much larger. 
The reforms inaugurated by the King are di- 
rectly traceable to the influence of the mission- 
aries. The ruler of a country in which Buddhism 
is the state religion, he has not personally 
accepted the Christian faith, but he has not 
hesitated to adopt the suggestions which the 
Christian teachers have made. 

The late ex-regent remarked in 1871 to the 
Hon. George F. Seward, then American Con- 
sul-General at Shanghai, that " Siam had not 
been disciplined by English and French guns 
as China, but the country had been opened by 
missionaries." 

The present King said to Dr. Dunlap in 1898, 
"I am glad you are here working for my peo- 
ple, and I wish you success." Such words from 
such a ruler mean much. Strict Buddhist 
though he is, he and his officials not only grant 
full religious toleration, but assign valuable 
property to Christian mission work at a nomi- 
nal value, as at Nakawn, or for nothing, as at 
Ratburi. Not only this, but the King person- 
ally contributed $2400 in 1888 to enlarge the 



BESULTS 203 

mission hospital at Petchaburi. He also gave 
at various times $1000 to the girls' school at 
the same station, 4000 ticals to the mission 
hospital at Nakawn, and headed a list of donors 
of the new site for the Christian Boys' High 
School at Bangkok, over 80 of his princes and 
nobles adding their names, till the gifts aggre- 
gated 17,000 ticals. The Queen, in 1895, gave 
the money for a women's ward at the Petcha- 
buri Hospital, and $1500 to form " The Queen's 
Scholarship Fund " at the Harriet House Girls' 
School. Prince Devawongse personally said 
to the author in Bangkok, " Your missionaries 
first brought civilization to my country." The 
American Minister, the Hon. Hamilton King, 
says that, at a banquet in 1899, Prince Dam- 
rong, the Minister of the Interior, declared in 
the hearing of every one at the table: "Mr. 
King, I want to say to you that we have great 
respect for your American missionaries in our 
country, and appreciate very highly the work 
they are doing for our people. I want this to 
be understood by every one, and if you are in 
a position to let it be known to your country- 
men, I wish you would say this for me." 

The Hon. John Barrett, American Minister 
to Siam, 1894-1898, bore frequent and em- 
phatic testimony to their high character and 
the great value of their work. His successor, 
the Hon. Hamilton King, writes : " Siam is a 
country in which the American missionaries 
have made no mistakes of importance and where 
they enjoy the fullest respect and the entire con- 



204 



SIAM 



fidence of the government. It is not only their 
preaching that is making their influence felt ; 
these men are a power for good along all lines 
of influence. . . . And by endeavoring to make 
the people to whom they were sent a little 
stronger, a little happier, and a little better, they 
have gradually been commending their gospel of 
a good and holy God, who is everywhere working 
out the best for His children, of which great 
family all men are members." 

OBSTACLES AND ENCOURAGEMENTS 



Obstacles Obstacles to missionary effort are not want- 

ing. Many vices, against which there is little 
or no public sentiment, weaken the character 
of the people. The Roman Catholics are so 
much more numerous than the Protestants, and 
their alliance with French political designs is 
so open and aggressive, that to many Siamese 
the term Christian suggests a Roman Catholic. 
The commissioner of a certain province told a 
Siamese pastor that religion was only a matter 
of form, anyway, and as Buddhism was their 
national religion and Christianity the national 
religion of the French, he saw no reason for 
abandoning their faith and taking that of the 
foreigners. 

indifference Languid indifference is the special obstacle to 
mission work in Siam as national pride is in 
Japan, ancestral worship in China, and caste in 
India. A tropical climate, a prolific soil, and a 
comparatively sparse population remove those 



THE FUTURE 205 

incentives to energy which a sterner clime, a 
poorer soil, and a denser overcrowding supply 
in China. The religious beliefs of the people 
intensify this physical and mental sloth by com- 
mending the passive rather than the active life. 

In spite of these obstacles, Siam and Laos Encourage- 
are promising mission fields. There are notable ments 
advantages in the openness of the entire coun- 
try, the good-will of all classes of people, the 
avowed favor of the government, the willing- 
ness of high officials to send their children to 
mission schools, the disposition of the authori- 
ties to prefer graduates of mission institutions 
for official positions, the frankly expressed 
gratitude of the King and his ministers for the 
services which the missionaries have rendered 
to Siam, and the comparative absence of that 
bitter poverty which so oppresses the traveller 
in India. Then there is no caste, no ancestral 
worship, no child marriage, no shutting up of 
women in inaccessible zenanas. 

In no other country of Asia, except Korea, Friendliness 
are Protestant missionaries regarded with 
greater friendliness by people of all ranks. 
Their lives and property are as safe as if they 
were under British rule in India. Princes 
and nobles are their friends. Men trained in 
the universities of Europe ask them questions. 
Missionary educators teach the sons of gov- 
ernors, judges, and high commissioners, and 
missionary physicians are called into the homes 
of the proudest officials. 

Most significant of all, there is a general 



206 SIAM 

Religious expectation of another and more perfect incar- 

expectation na ti n of Buddha. 

The result is, that as the missionaries go 
about with the good tidings of Jesus Christ, 
the people ask one another in awed tones, 
" Is not this He for whom we look ? " Bud- 
dhist monks, instead of being bitterly hostile, 
like the priests and mullahs of other lands, 
invite the missionaries to the temples and 
eagerly inquire of them further of this matter, 
Mr. Dodd says : " Most of our auditors looked 
upon Jesus as the next Buddha, the Saviour, 
Ahreyah Mettai. Many lifted both hands in 
worship of the pictures, the books, and the 
preachers. Our colporteurs were treated in 
most places as the messengers of the Buddhist 
Messiah. Offerings of food, flowers, and wax 
tapers were made to them. In return, they 
were expected to bless the givers. They ex- 
plained that they themselves were sinners de- 
riving all merit and blessing from God, and 
then reverently asked a blessing from Him. 
Thus Christian services were held in hundreds 
of homes." 

Dr. Briggs writes of one of his tours : " The 
message was received with outspoken gratitude 
and intelligent interest, many of the people 
remaining till long after midnight, reading the 
books and tracts by the light of the fire, and 
asking questions of the Christians in our 
company. The people, hungry for truth that 
satisfies and longing for light, are very anx- 
iously awaiting the coming of the promised mes- 



THE FUTURE 207 

siah of Buddhism. What a preparation for the 
true Messiah ! " 

Never has the Christian missionary had a Great Op- 
better opportunity to take tactful advantage P ortumt y 
of a national belief for the introduction of the 
Gospel of Christ. 

My heart lovingly lingers upon my journey- 
ings through the Land of the White Elephant 
— the month upon its mighty rivers, now 
towed by a noisy launch, now poled by half- 
naked tattooed boatmen, now shooting tumult- 
uous rapids through weirdly savage canons ; 
the days of elephant travel through the vast 
forests, slowly picking our way along the 
boulder-strewn bed of mountain streams, trav- 
ersing beautiful valleys, and climbing rocky 
heights, the huge beasts never making a mis- 
step even in the most slippery steeps ; the 
nights when we pitched our tents in the heart 
of the great jungle, the camp-fire throwing its 
fitful light upon the boles of giant trees and the 
tangled labyrinth of tropical vines mid which 
monkeys curiously watched us and unseen 
beasts growled their anger at our intrusion. 
Most delightful of all are my memories of the 
unvarying kindness of the people, who, from 
his Majesty the King down through princes, 
commissioners, and governors to humble vil- 
lagers, showed a hospitable friendliness which 
quite won my heart ; while it would be hard 
to conceive a more loving welcome than was 
extended to us by the missionaries and by our 



208 SIAM 

able and sympathetic American Minister and 
his family. More profitable to us than they 
could possibly have been to the workers were 
our long conferences regarding the Lord's 
work in that far-off land. It is prospering in 
their hands, and it will prosper to a far greater 
degree if the Church at home will give to them 
that loving, prayerful, and generous coopera- 
tion which the missionaries in Siam and Laos so 
well deserve. 



BUEMA 



BY 

THE REV. ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN, D.D. 

author of 

"New Forces in Old China" 

and 

"The New Era in the Philippines" 



CHAPTER VI 
BURMA 

Burma forms the northeastern part of Great 
Britain's vast empire in India. The political 
readjustments of the last century have changed 
the boundaries at various times, but the region Position 
which now bears the name includes both Upper 
and Lower Burma and the Shan States. The 
areas are : Lower Burma, 81,138 square miles; 
Upper Burma, 87,435; Shan States, 68,165; a 
total of 236,738 square miles. In other words, 
Burma is larger than France, and almost as large 
as Texas. The length, north and south, is about 
1100 miles, and the breadth at the widest point 
is about 700. 

The physical configuration may be roughly Physical 
described as a series of parallel mountain ranges Features 
running north and south, and separated by fer- 
tile river valleys. The largest river is the Irra- 
waddy, which is navigable for 900 miles. The 
next largest, the Salween, is not navigable. 
Between these two river basins is another con- 
siderable stream, the Sittang. There are sev- 
eral smaller streams, the principal ones being 
the Chindwin, the Myitnge, and the Tenasserim. 
All the rivers have numerous tributaries, on 
which the natives journey and transport their 
produce by canoes. 

211 



212 



BURMA 



Natural 
Divisions 



Climate 



Flora 



The lines of communication naturally run 
north and south along the valleys. Travelling 
east and west is difficult, as jungle-covered 
mountains have to be crossed. This jungle 
teems with monkeys, birds of tropical plumage, 
and some of the largest and fiercest game in the 
world, — the tiger, buffalo, elephant, and rhi- 
noceros. About 2000 people and 10,000 cattle 
are killed annually by serpents and poisonous 
insects. 

The climate is tropical, Burma being in about 
the latitude of Cuba. As in most tropical re- 
gions, there are practically but two seasons, wet 
and dry. In the wet season, from May to Oc- 
tober, the rainfall is over sixteen feet at some 
points on the coast. There is a belt in the re- 
gion of Mandalay where there is so little rain 
that irrigation is necessary ; but north of it, at 
Bhamo, the downpour is again heavy. Life in 
the wet season is even more uncomfortable than 
during " the hot season " which immediately 
precedes it. The sodden land literally steams 
under the continued heat, and shoes, books, and 
clothing are covered with mould in a single 
night. 

The soil of the valleys is very fertile. Though 
nine-tenths of the people subsist by cultivating 
the soil, and the average farm is sixteen acres, 
less than twenty-four per cent of the total area 
is now tilled. The chief products are teak, 
lumber, rice, wheat, and other food grains, petro- 
leum, oil seeds, cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, tea, 
and indigo. Excellent amber is found in some 



THE COUNTRY 213 

quantities. Rubies are exported to the value of 
about $500,000 annually. Four million pounds 
of jade are mined in an average year. 

The population is 10,490,624, of which about Population 
one-half (5,405,967) are in Lower Burma, 
3,846,908 in Upper Burma, and 1,237,749 in the 
Shan States. This gives Lower Burma 67 in- 
habitants to the square mile, Upper Burma 44, 
and the Shan States 18, — an average for the 
whole country of 44. 

The Burmans proper form about four-fifths Race and 
of the population. The original stock is sup- Cn ^ c " 

! i . • -.. . . teristics 

posed to have migrated in prehistoric times 
from the borders of Tibet. The typical Bur- 
man is of medium height, heavier in form than 
the Hindu, has long black hair and rather flat 
features. He is fond of theatrical amusements 
and loves to array himself in bright colors. 
To the traveller from India, the contrast is 
striking. Instead of emaciated, sad-faced peo- 
ple, he sees happy, sleek, and well-fed men and 
women. There is no caste, and all classes min- 
gle freely. Like the Siamese, the Burman is 
indolent and regards work as beneath him. 
The soil of his country is so rich, the climate 
so well adapted to vegetation, and the popula- 
tion so comparatively sparse that wants are 
fewer than in the more temperate clime from 
which his ancestors came. His taste is not fas- 
tidious. His staple food, rice, is clean enough, 
but he flavors it with nga-pee, putrid fish. 
His Buddhist objection to taking life does not 
trouble him in the least, for, he argues, he does 



214 BURMA 

not kill the fish; they simply die when he takes 
them out of the water. He " dries " them on 
mats in the sun, without dressing, pounds them 
to a paste, adds a little salt, drains off the oil, 
and then spreads the paste on his rice and eats 
it with keen relish. We shall never forget the 
odor of those decaying fish. We could tell a 
mile away when we were approaching the " dry- 
ing " mats. As the other tribes are equally care- 
less in eating and drinking and disposal of 
garbage, and as there is total ignorance of the 
real causes of disease and of proper methods 
of treating it, Burma affords many victims for 
cholera, plague, malaria, dysentery, and other 
tropical diseases. 
Dress The dress of the common people is simply a 

strip of colored cotton cloth around the loins 
and another on the head. With some varia- 
tions in the method of draping, the loin cloth 
serves for both sexes, the women simply let- 
ting it fall a little lower on the limbs. Chil- 
dren wear nothing at all. 

In spite of his laziness, his poverty, his shift- 
lessness, and the ease with which a handful of 
the British have defeated him in war and a 
few thousand Chinese have made themselves 
masters of his trade, the Burman is one of the 
most self-satisfied of mortals, proudly regard- 
ing himself as superior to all other races. He 
smokes his cigarette, chews his betel, eats his 
"fragrant" fish, lounges in his bamboo hut, and 
is calmly indifferent to the rest of the world. 
"Custom" is his law of life. No matter whether 



THE COUNTRY 215 

a new way is better or not, he follows the old, 
and if you ask him why, he shrugs his shoulders 
and replies, "It is custom." 

Let us be careful in our judgment, however. 
The Burmans are not the only conceited people 
on earth. There are a few in America. Nor 
do we have to travel halfway around the world 
to find the indolent and careless. The Burman 
has some good qualities, and if he had the in- 
vigorating teachings of the Gospel, he would 
develop them. Here is our opportunity and 
our duty. 

Women have considerable freedom. There Women 
is no such seclusion of females as in India. 
They freely mingle with men and attend to the 
business matters of the family. The marriage 
tie is loose, and concubinage is common. The 
use of tobacco and betel nut is universal, not 
only by men, but also by women and children. 
British law also deals so sternly with gambling, 
theft, and violence that outwardly the Burmans vices 
seem less lawless than some other peoples. But 
their natural disposition is not changed by these 
laws, but simply held in check. Drunkenness 
and opium smoking are not so common as the 
former is in England and the latter in China, 
but both are rapidly increasing under the in- 
fluence of the European in one case and the 
Chinese in the other. Most foreigners in Asia, 
outside of the missionary circle, drink heavily, 
and the native soon learns to imitate them. 

The remaining fifth of the population is made 
up of heterogeneous elements, fifty-seven in- 



216 



BURMA 



digenous peoples or tribes being enumerated 
by the British census, besides a considerable 
number of non-indigenous races. We mention 
those which are most important from a mission- 
ary view-point : — 

The Karens The Karens, 714,000 in number, are descend- 
ants of a people who also originally migrated 
into Burma .from the western part of China, 
forced out apparently by the ever-advancing 
Chinese. They are divided into several scat- 
tered tribes, the three leading ones being the 
Sgaws, Pwos, and Bghais. The Sgaws number 
about 260,000 and the Pwos 310,000. Both 
these tribes are in Lower Burma. The Bghais 
are more warlike in temper, and are to be found 
among the mountains farther north. They are 
a simple-minded people, distinctly lower than 
the Burmans in civilization, and, before the 
arrival of the British, suffered much from the 
cruelty of their stronger neighbors. 

Traditions There has been much speculation as to where 

and how the Karens obtained some of the tra- 
ditions which they jealously guard and hand 
down from generation to generation. This 
folklore apparently points to an earlier knowl- 
edge of the biblical narrative, for it includes 
tales of the creation of woman from the rib of 
the first man, of the sin of the first man and 
the first woman, of the wrath of God on ac- 
count of transgression, but of His promise to 
send deliverance and happiness through " white 
foreigners " who were to come " in ships from 
the west." 



THE COUNTRY 217 

It will readily be seen what a remark- 
able preparation for the Gospel message such 
traditions afford. The missionary with his 
proclamation of Christ seems to these poor, 
oppressed people the fulfilment of their long- 
cherished dreams. It is not surprising, there- 
fore, that mission work has made far more 
rapid progress among the Karens than among 
other elements of the population. 

The Talaings, or Mons, as they prefer to call Talaings 
themselves, are supposed to be the oldest of the 
peoples of modern Burma, having moved south- 
ward from Tibet in an unknown antiquity. 
They resemble the Burmans in many ways, but 
their language is different. For a considerable 
period they maintained a separate kingdom, 
with Pegu as their capital. Frequent wars 
with the Burmans resulted in their final sub- 
jugation by Alompra in 1755. There are now 
321,898 Talaings in Burma and a consider- 
able additional number in Siam, to which there 
have been several emigrations. 

The Shans, descendants of a migration from The Shans 
western China before the beginning of the 
Christian era, number 751,759, and occupy the 
valleys and hill slopes of the Shan States in 
northeastern Burma. Their kings once ruled 
over a territory in northern and central Burma, 
which varied in area as they were conquerors 
or conquered in their numerous wars with the 
Burmans, who, however, finally succeeded in 
subduing them. They are roughly divided 
into Eastern Shans and Western Shans, the 



218 



BURMA 



Salween watershed being the general dividing 
line. Each of these main divisions, however, 
is subdivided into several tribes. The East- 
ern Shans belong to the Tai race and are, 
therefore, more like their cousins, the Laos 
and Siamese, than the Burmans. The Shans in 
general are more alert and self-reliant than the 
Burmans. They are famous as traders. Like 
the Burmans and Laos, they are fond of jewel- 
lery, and all men and boys are closely tattooed 
from below the knee to the waist. 

Kachins The 65,510 Kachins are hill-dwellers in Upper 

Burma, hardy, clannish, warlike mountaineers, 
who frequently raided the Burman villages 
of the plains and scoffed at the rage of the 
softer people, until British machine guns put 
an end to their forays. They are lower in 
the scale of civilization than the Burmans 
and Shans, ignorant, superstitious, and filthy 
in dress and habits, but still aggressive and 
disposed to press the Shans southward. They 
are demon-worshippers in religion. 

The Chins The Chins, of whom there are 180,000, inhabit 

the mountainous region in the northwest. Like 
the Kachins, whom they resemble, they are not 
Buddhists but demon-worshippers For a con- 
siderable period, they gave the British much 
trouble, and it was not till 1890 that they 
were really subdued. Morally, they are low, 
impurity and drunkenness being almost uni- 
versal. 

The Chinese are in evidence in all the lead- 
ing cities, as they are in Siam and the Straits 



THE COUNTBY 219 

Settlements. There are 63,000 in Burma, half 
of whom are in Rangoon. Their industry, 
patience, and thrift easily secure commercial 
preeminence, and the bulk of the business of 
the country is in their hands. 

East Indians are also numerous, particularly East 
in the cities. The facts that Burma is the most Indians 
prosperous province of British India, that the 
population is less crowded, and that wages are 
much higher than in India proper, attract large 
numbers of the poverty-stricken natives from 
the provinces west of the Bay of Bengal. 

There are several cities of considerable local 
importance. The first of these, of course, is 
Rangoon, the capital and metropolis, on the 
Rangoon River, about fifteen miles from the 
sea. From a wretched fishing village, in 1852, 
it has grown to a city of nearly a quarter of 
a million inhabitants. Commercially, it ranks 
third in all British India, being exceeded only 
by Calcutta and Bombay. Its rice mills and 
lumber yards are of great size, and every visitor 
curiously watches the trained elephants pick 
up timbers and carefully pile them. 

Religiously, Rangoon is celebrated for its Rangoon 
pagodas and monasteries. The Shwe Dagon 
Pagoda is the most famous in all Indo- China. 
It is 370 feet in height, 1335 in circumference, 
and is gilded to the summit, the upper part hav- 
ing been laid in 1903 with sheets of beaten gold 
at a cost of over $250,000. The great "ti" or 
umbrella which surmounts it is so lavishly em- 
bellished with gold and jewels that it alone cost 



220 BURMA 

£50,000. Innumerable silver bells are sus- 
pended from it, and when they are swayed by the 
wind, the soft music is very beautiful. Standing 
upon the summit of a terraced mound 166 feet 
high, this lofty and splendid pagoda can be seen 
from a great distance, blazing with burnished 
splendor in the tropical sunshine. It is be- 
lieved to contain genuine relics not only of 
Buddha but of his three illustrious predecessors. 
Innumerable pilgrims visit this shrine, some com- 
ing as far as from Ceylon, Siam, and Cambodia. 
The throngs of people of many nationalities, 
the variety of brilliantly colored garments, the 
wealth of cloth and jewels and goods of every 
description in the little shops, the lights of 
thousands of burning candles, the tinkling of 
bells, the chatter and laughter of myriad 
voices, the never-ending chants of worshippers 
and, high over all, the stately glory of the 
great Pagoda, combine to make a scene which, 
once seen, can never be forgotten. 

Moulmein, on the Salween River, eight hours 
by steamer from Rangoon, is a beautiful city of 
56,000 inhabitants, and is famous for its teak 
lumber trade and for its wood and ivory carv- 
ings. 
Mandalay Mandalay, 386 miles from Rangoon, is a city 

of 180,000 inhabitants. It was the capital of 
Burma from 1860 to 1885. While it was the 
residence of the King, it was a place of large 
importance, but since the downfall of the native 
dynasty and the transfer of the seat of govern- 
ment to Rangoon, it has lost ground. It is 



GOVERNMENT 



221 



still, however, a place of considerable impor- 
tance. Some of its pagodas are magnificent 
in size and splendor, and the bazaar is crowded 
with people of many tribes. 

There are a few other cities of considerable Bhamo 
local influence. Bhamo is at the head of navi- 
gation of the Irrawaddy, and is a military trade 
and mission centre. Prome is an ancient capi- 
tal and has about 30,000 population. Bassein 
also has 30,000 people and a good local trade. 
Pegu, though now having but 12,000 inhabit- 
ants, boasts a history dating back to 573 A.D. 
It was the capital of the Talaing Kingdom, and 
in the sixteenth century it is said to have been 
a splendid city. Smaller places are, of course, 
numerous. 

GOVERNMENT 

As Burma forms a part of British India, Government 
its government is, of course, the same as that 
of India. The story of the white man's con- 
quest is a stirring one, but only the barest 
outline of facts and dates can be given here. 

Portuguese and Dutch traders entered Burma 
in the sixteenth century, but in the early years 
of the seventeenth century the future masters 
of Burma appeared in the agents of the Brit- 
ish East India Company. Disputes with the The East 
haughty Burmans were frequent, and in 1759, 
King Alompra caused 10 Englishmen and 100 
of their East Indian employees to be killed and 
their factories destroyed. In 1824, the vain- 
glorious Burmese undertook to teach the Brit- 



India 
Company 



222 BUBMA 

ish a sharper lesson by invading Assam and 
Manipur and marching toward Bengal. They 
proved to be the learners, however, for the 
British declared war, expelled the invaders, 
and captured several Burmese cities, includ- 
ing Rangoon. Sixty thousand Burmese tried 
to drive them out ; but, though ravaged by 
disease until seventy-two per cent died and 
only 1300 English and 2500 Indian troops were 
able to fight, the little army easily scattered the 
unorganized hordes of natives. Strengthened 
by reinforcements, the British pressed on till, 
in February, 1826, the defeated native ruler 
was glad to sign a treaty of peace ceding Arra- 
kan, Assam, and the coast of Tenasserim, and 
paying an indemnity of £1,000,000 toward the 
cost of the war. A British resident came in 
1830 " to advise " the native King. 
War of 1852 A renewal of indignities to British subjects 
led to the Second War, in 1852, which resulted 
in the annexation by the British of a consider- 
able part of the province of Pegu. In 1862, 
the provinces of Pegu, Arrakan, Tenasserim, 
and Martoban were constituted the province 
of British Burma under the administration of 
a chief commissioner. 

In 1878, the notorious Thibaw ascended the 
throne. He began his reign by inviting several 
score of his royal relatives to the palace and 
then murdering them. These murders were 
followed by others in Mandalay and elsewhere, 
until more than a thousand princes, princesses, 
nobles and officials and their children had been 



GOVERNMENT 223 

slaughtered. Thibaw's treacherous and bloody Thibaw 
reign, his insulting treatment of the British 
resident, his negotiations with France and 
other continental powers, his imposition of a 
fine of £ 230,000 on the Bombay Burma Trad- 
ing Corporation, and his refusal of the Indian 
government's proposal to arbitrate the question 
at issue, combined to lead the British to send 
him an ultimatum, October 22, 1885. The fat- 
uous King haughtily rejected it, and ordered his 
troops to drive the hated white men into the 
sea. The British promptly marched on Man- 
dalay, captured it, sent Thibaw and his Jezebel 
Queen prisoners to India, and January 1, 1886, 
formally annexed Upper Burma to the British 
Empire. Conventions with China in 1886 and 
1894 recognized British supremacy in Burma 
and defined the frontier, and in 1897 the whole 
country was made a province of British India 
under a lieutenant-governor. 

The British have done for Burma substantially British Kuie 
what they have done for other parts of their In- 
dian Empire. A railroad runs from Rangoon 
to Myityna on the frontier, and the line is sur- 
veyed as far as Chung-king in China. There 
are excellent carriage roads, particularly in 
Lower Burma, aggregating 9368 miles, with 
rest-houses at convenient intervals built and 
furnished by the government and available for 
foreign travellers. The India post-office and 
telegraph system reaches all the important 
cities and most of the smaller towns of the 
country. 



224 BURMA 



RELIGIONS 



Religion Of the 10,490,624 people of Burma, 9,184,121 

are Buddhists. The others are distributed as 
follows : Anirnists, 399,390 ; Mohammedans, 
339,446; Hindus, 285,484; Christians, 147,525; 
Sikhs, 6,596; Jews, 685; Parsees, 245; Jains, 93; 
miscellaneous, 127,039. 

It will be seen, therefore, that Burma is dis- 
tinctively a Buddhist country. There are over 
20,000 monks. As in Siam, every male is ex- 
pected to spend some time in the monastery. 
He must shave his head and don the yellow 
robe. Pagodas, temples, and monasteries are 
literally innumerable. No hamlet is so small 
that it does not have a temple and monastery, 
and the larger towns have scores of them. The 
Buddhist teaching, which assigns great " merit " 
to the man who erects a religious structure, leads 
to constant additions to the number. 

MISSIONS 

Missions Missionary work in Burma is conducted by 

the American Baptist Missionary Union, the 
Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary 
Society, the China Inland Mission, the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the 
Evangelistic Lutheran Mission of Leipzig. The 
following undenominational agencies are also 
engaged in the special lines of work for which 
they are organized: the British and Foreign 
Bible Society, the Missionary Pence Association, 



missions 225 

the Mission to Lepers in India and the East, 
the Young Men's Christian Association, and the 
Young Women's Christian Association. 

The C. I. M., of course, seeks only the Chi- China in- 
nese. Its work, begun in 1875, is small, there ^Mission 

i • i I -i ™ n n and others 

being but one iamily at rmamo and five con- 
verts. The Lutheran work is also small. The 
Wesleyan Mission, begun among the British 
soldiers by the Rev. W. B. Simpson in 1885, 
and among the natives by the Rev. W. R. Win- 
ston in 1887, now has five stations, eight 
missionaries, 30 schools, and 503 communicants. 
There are good high schools with boarding de- 
partments at the principal stations. The large 
Leper Home in Mandalay is manned by the 
Wesleyan missionaries, though supported by the 
Mission to Lepers in the East. The points occu- 
pied are Mandalay, which is the chief centre, 
Pakokku, Monywa, and Kyaukse. 

The work of the American Methodists was The 
inaugurated by Bishop James M. Thoburn, of Metnodists 
India. In compliance with an urgent invita- 
tion, he visited Rangoon in 1879 and organized 
an English-speaking church. The congregation . 
started with an encouragingly large member- 
ship, which made it self-supporting from the be- 
ginning. A church edifice was dedicated March 
25, 1880. Mr. Carter soon arrived from Amer- 
ica, with his wife, and became pastor. The 
church became an influential factor in the re- 
ligious life of the city, doing considerable local 
work among the Tamils and Telegus, and giving 
liberally to various causes. Bishop Thoburn 

Q 



226 BURMA 

says, "The Rangoon congregation is the best 
working church I have known in any land." 

The need of a school for girls was soon felt, 
and the Rangoon Girls' High School was estab- 
lished by the Woman's Foreign Missionary 
Society in 1882. The government showed its 
good- will by donating a commodious site and 
$5000 toward the cost of a building, besides 
several hundred dollars more for furnishing. 
Friends in Rangoon raised a generous additional 
sum, so that the principal, Miss Ellen Warner, 
who arrived in 1881, had the satisfaction of 
moving the school into a handsome building 
worth $15,000. Within a year, a hundred girls 
were in attendance. Current expenses as well 
as property were secured on the field, and, apart 
from the salary of the missionary in charge, no 
help was received from America until 1899, 
when friends of Mrs. Charlotte O'Neal, Secre- 
tary of the Pacific Branch of the Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society, erected a dormitory 
and residence now known as the Charlotte 
O'Neal Institute. The school has developed 
into a large institution, with 40 boarders, and 
270 day pupils. About 50 of these are Jews 
or Parsees, and the rest are Eurasians. A 
school for Burmese girls was added in 1892. 
This also has prospered. In 1904, an addi- 
tional building, " Shattuck Hall," was erected, 
and the year 1907 saw still another building, 
" Hagerty Home," added. Over 200 pupils are 
in attendance. 

Sympathy for friendless and destitute orphans 



missions 227 

led to the opening of an Orphanage and Indus- Orphanage 
trial School in 1887. Friends in Rangoon came 
forward nobly, with gifts aggregating $5000. 
11300 from America were added, and in 1889 a 
good property was secured. In 1897, it was 
deemed expedient to remove the institution to 
Thandang, 160 miles north of Rangoon, where 
conditions were not only more healthful, but more 
favorable to the training of such girls than in a 
large port city. The friendly government made 
a lease of a hundred acres of land for a low figure. 

" Beginning in the most primitive and isolated 
surroundings, with a bamboo hut having but 
one door and no windows," this institution pros- 
pered to such an extent that it outgrew a first 
and then a second building, and now it is housed 
in the " Elizabeth Pearson Hall," erected in 
1907, at a cost of $21,000. The property is self- 
supporting, and its beneficent care has blessed 
hundreds of orphaos for time and for eternity. 

The Anglo- Vernacular Boys' School in Ran- Schools 
goon has also flourished. It opened January 
11, 1904, with the surprising number of 75 
boys, nearly all Burmese Buddhists, and two 
months later the number rose to 250. Bronson 
Hall was begun in 1907. The government pays 
nearly half the cost of $14,000, and $5000 of the 
remainder have been given by the Rev. Dr. 
Dillon Bronson, of Boston. The corner-stone 
of this building, and also the corner-stone of 
the new Epworth Memorial Church were laid on 
the same day by Bishops Thoburn and Fitz- 
gerald, at the Annual Conference of 1907. 



228 BURMA 

Gradually the work extended beyond Ran- 
goon. Pegu was occupied in 1893, Thongwa in 
1894, and work for the Chinese was opened in 
1897. The Bengal-Burma Conference was organ- 
ized in 1893, but by 1901 Burma had become 
important enough to stand alone, and on Feb- 
ruary 2 of that year the Burma Mission Con- 
ference was organized by Bishop Warne. 

The Methodist Mission is the smallest of the 
nine missions of that Church in southern Asia, 
and changes in the personnel have been so nu- 
merous that no one of the present force has been 
on the field more than three years. But the 
missionaries are full of enthusiasm for their 
work. Good progress has been made, consider- 
ingallthe circumstances, and larger development 
is planned, particularly among the Burmans, 
upon whom missionary effort has thus far made 
comparatively little impression, the large suc- 
cess having been among the other races of the 
country. The Mission feels, however, that it 
has a message for each of the various peoples of 
Lower Burma. The cosmopolitan character of 
its work is indicated by the fact that at the 
Annual Conference in 1907, Secretary A. B. 
Leonard of the Board preached to a congrega- 
tion in which nine languages were spoken. " It 
was called a united vernacular service. The 
languages were English, Burmese, Telugu, 
Tamil, Hindustani, Chin, Karen, Kanarese, and 
Chinese. The sermon was translated into Bur- 
mese as it was delivered. Then interpreters 
who had made notes, gave it in Telugu, Tamil, 



missions 229 

and Chinese, so that it was given five times in 
all. For once in my life I spoke with tongues — 
the tongues of other people." 

There are now nine circuits: Pegu-Sittang, 
Thandaung, Thongwa-Twanta, Syriam, and five 
in Rangoon : Burmese, Chinese, Tamil, Telegu, 
and English. The mission force consists of 16 
missionaries, including three wives and seven sin- 
gle women of the Woman's Society. There are 
15 schools, of which 10 are for boys and five for 
girls, 31 Sunday-schools, and a Christian com- 
munity of 530 full members, 416 probationers, 
and 187 baptized children. 

The S. P. G. work is older and larger than 
that of the other Boards mentioned. The be- 
ginnings were at Moulmein, where, in 1852, 
Chaplain W. T. Humphrey started among the 
British residents a " Burmese mission fund," 
which his successor, Chaplain C. S. P. Parish, 
increased to rupees 11,168. Interested by their 
reports, the Society, in 1859, appointed the Rev. 
T. A. Cockey a missionary, and a few months 
later he was joined by the Rev. A. Shears, who 
started a boys' school, which enrolled 100 pu- 
pils within the first year. 

1860 saw the arrival of a man who was des- j. e. Marks 
tined to have a large influence in the evan- 
gelization of Burma, Mr. J. E. Marks. He 
developed the boys' school so rapidly that the 
Bishop of Calcutta, who visited it in December, 
1861, said that he had " never seen in India a 
more promising school or one containing better 
elements of success." In 1864, Mr. Marks was 



230 BURMA 

transferred to Rangoon. His successors carried 
on the work for a time, but discouragements 
multiplied. Chaplain Parish had baptized the 
first Burmese convert in 1863, but additions 
were few, and in 1872 it was thought wise to 
discontinue the station. It was reopened in 
1879 by the Rev. James A. Colbeck, who found 
only three or four Burmese Christians, but "a 
considerable number " of Tamils, while the or- 
phanage for Eurasians was still in existence. 
Progress of The work quickly revived. Within two years, 
the work forty converts from Buddhism had been bap- 
tized, a large school established, and a church 
building begun. " Seldom in the history of 
missions," wrote the Bishop of Rangoon, " has 
there been so rapid and effective a revival of 
lapsed labour." When Mr. Colbeck left for 
Mandalay in 1885, the station was well estab- 
lished and it has continued to flourish. 

It was a chaplain also, the Rev. H. W. Crof- 
ton, who in 1858 advised the Society to open 
work in Rangoon, and began collecting funds 
for it among the British residents. When Mr. 
Marks came from Moulmein in 1864, he founded 
a school which enrolled 220 boys within nine 
months and which developed into the famous 
St. John's College. By 1892 it had 650 stu- 
dents, of whom 300 were boarders. All together 
this College has now educated wholly or in part 
over 15,000 boys. 

St. Mary's School, founded in 1865 by Miss 
Cooke, is a less extensive but very important 
school for girls under the care of the Ladies' 



MISSIONS 231 

Association. It was said of it in 1869 that 
" almost every race in Rangoon is represented 
in it," and the statement is equally true 
to-day. 

From these two institutions as centres, the 
work was developed in various directions among 
Burmese, Chinese, and Tamils. In 1864, Mr. 
Marks, with ten of his students, visited several 
towns on the Irrawaddy River. This was the 
beginning of the S. P. G. work north of Ran- 
goon. Schools were established at a number 
of places, though some of these had to be closed 
for want of suitable teachers and sufficient su- 
pervision by English missionaries. The Rev. 
and Mrs. C. H. Chard opened a boys' school 
at Thyet Myo in 1886, and in 1871 went 
there to reside, Mrs. Chard founding a girls' 
school. 

Prome, which like the places mentioned above 
had also been visited by Mr. Marks in 1864, saw 
the beginnings of a fine girls' school in 1871, 
under the care of the Ladies' Association. St. 
Mark's Church was built in 1878, by which 
time both the educational and evangelistic work 
had developed promisingly. 

The spiritual receptivity of the Karens was work 
brought to the attention of the society by among 
Chaplain J. Young in 1862. It was not until 
1873, however, that a resident missionary, the 
Rev. C. Warren, reached Toungoo to begin 
work among them. Before his lamented death 
in 1875, he declared that the station might 
prove to " be the key to one of the most flour- 



232 BURMA 

ishing and extensive missions in the world." 
September 7, 1878, was a great day, for at that 
time St. Paul's Church was consecrated, four 
Karen teachers were ordained deacons, and 62 
persons were confirmed by the Bishop of Ran- 
goon; while in the same year a Normal and In- 
dustrial School was opened, more than half the 
cost being borne by the Karens themselves. A 
medical department was added in 1879, and in 
1881 new and larger school buildings, a chapel, 
and clergy house were added to the equipment. 
A printing-press greatly extended the influence 
of the work. A Karen girls' school, begun in 
1884, opened a door of hope to a large number 
of ignorant and neglected girls, and by 1888 
gave promise of supplying a considerable num- 
ber of village teachers and hospital nurses. 

The province of Arakan had also attracted 
the indefatigable Mr. Marks during that mem- 
orable tour of 1864, and the good seed then 
sown had taken root. When Bishop Titcomb 
visited Akyab, there were a church, a parson- 
age, a government school and hospital, and by 
1890 the Bishop could describe the station as 
"a most useful and promising work." 

The S. P. G. station at Mandalay is another 
of the many stations in Burma which owe their 
origin to St. John's College. A Burmese prince, 
who had quarrelled with his father and taken 
refuge in Rangoon, was found by Mr. Marks 
in 1863 and given some Christian books. When 
he returned to Mandalay after his reconcilia- 
tion with his father, he invited Mr. Marks to 



MISSIONS 233 

visit him. The good missionary complied with 
the request in 1868. He was introduced at 
once to the King, upon whom he made a pro- 
found impression. Influenced partly by his 
high regard for Mr. Marks and partly also, as 
events proved, by the hope of securing some 
political advantages from the British govern- 
ment, the King gave the missionary land for 
church, school, and residence, and placed nine 
of his sons under Mr. Marks's care. The con- 
secration of the Church of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by the Bishop of Calcutta, July 30, 
1873, was a notable event. Queen Victoria, 
who had been greatly impressed by the fact 
that a Buddhist King was building a Christian 
church, presented a baptismal font. 

Political complications, however, so alienated Difficulties 
the fickle King that he withdrew his support 
and warned Dr. Marks " that it would not be 
safe to stay longer in Mandalay." The Viceroy 
of India, Lord Northbrook, urged the Bishop of 
Calcutta to recall the missionary at once, on 
the ground that " his life was in danger " and 
"for fear of complications between the two 
governments." But Bishop Milman wrote to 
Dr. Marks, and he fairly represented the at- 
titude of mission boards in general at such 
times : "I replied that it was not our custom to 
recall missionaries from their posts at the first 
appearance of danger, that you had my full 
permission to retire, if you thought it necessary 
to do so; but that while you judge it needful 
for your work to remain in Mandalay, I should 



234 BUBMA 

support you in so doing. But pray let me ad- 
vise caution, etc." 1 

Mr. Marks stayed until 1875 and was not 
injured. Other missionaries soon reenforced 
the station. The violent days of King Thibaw, 
who succeeded to the throne on the death of 
his father in 1878, compelled the withdrawal 
of both the station and the British Residency. 
Mr. Marks made several efforts to get into 
touch with his former pupil, and if he could 
have succeeded, some bloody events might not 
have occurred; but the Prime Minister barred 
the way. The King afterward protested that 
he knew nothing about the effort, and intimated 
that he would have been glad to see Mr. 
Marks. It is interesting to note that "the 
Register of the Royal School at Mandalay con- 
tains a record of Thibaw from the time of his 
admission in 1869 to his dethronement in 1885." 

The station was reopened by the Rev. James 
A. Colbeck after the capture of Mandalay by 
the British in 1885. The schools were rees- 
tablished, and within six months the number of 
Burmese converts rose to 75, and of schoolboys 
to 150. The work spread to the surrounding 
villages, and on Christmas Eve, 1887, Mr. Col- 
beck had the joy of seeing 20 men and 11 women 
baptized at one time. During a visit in 1889, 
Dr. Marks wrote : " Here in the golden apart- 
ment in which I had so often walked barefoot, 
and weary and anxious, waiting for hours for 
the appearance of one of my prince-pupils with 
1 Digest of S. P. G. Records, 649. 



missions 235 

the joyful words, ' Caw daw moo thee,' ' The 
King calls you,' I now stood with my back to 
the throne and preached to a large and attentive 
congregation from the words, 'The Power of 
His Resurrection.' " 

Archbishop Tate recognized the worth of Honor eon- 
this devoted pioneer missionary by conf erring fe f re . d on a 

* j j o missionary 

upon him in 1879 the Lambeth degree of D.D., 
and Bishop Titcomb spoke of him as " one of 
the most skilful and successful of schoolmasters 
who . . . has . . . learned to speak Burmese 
like a native, and is not only known throughout 
the chief part of British Burma, but is so loved 
and admired by the Burmese as to possess in- 
fluence over them wherever he goes. ... In 
many ways, I found him quite a power among 
them." 

Work was begun at Shwebo in 1887. It was 
not long before sixteen persons were baptized, 
one of them being a young princess, first cousin 
to Thibaw. She refused to return to her home 
in Mandalay, and devoted herself to evangelistic 
work at Shwebo. The word spread to the sur- 
rounding villages, and a girls' boarding school 
was opened, of which the Bishop of Rangoon 
said in 1901, "I know of no school of a similar 
character in all Burma to equal it." The Rev. 
H. M. Stockings has labored at this station 
since 1889, and now has the satisfaction of seeing 
a beautiful stone church and other buildings and 
a substantial work. 

Some work has also been done at Bhamo and the 
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, though the force 



236 BURMA 

has been small. Native catechists visited many- 
places where the missionaries themselves could 
not reside. "Children are taught to repeat 
over and over again in their own tongue short 
sentences on the goodness, love, and holiness of 
God and His mercy and lovingkindness in the 
gift of His Son, to be repeated hereafter in many 
a Nicobar hut where the blood of pigs and fowls 
has been sprinkled for fear of demons — sweet 
sounds strangely mingling with the weird, ex- 
cited, and drunken utterances of Menloonas." 

All together, the S. P. G. now has in Burma 
thirty-two missionaries. The work is cosmopoli- 
tanin character, being conducted among Burmese, 
Tamils, Chinese, Karens, Eurasians, and Euro- 
peans. In 1877, Lower Burma, which had hith- 
erto formed a part of the Diocese of Calcutta, 
was created a separate Diocese under the name 
of Rangoon, and its first bishop, the Rt. Rev. 
J. H. Titcomb, D.D., was consecrated in West- 
minster Abbey, with imposing ceremonies, De- 
cember 27th of that year. His episcopate was 
brief, for ill health resulting from a fall com- 
pelled him to resign in 1881. 

During those four years he laid broad founda- 
tions and saw the work well organized. His 
successor, the Rt. Rev. J. M. Strachan, was 
consecrated at Lambeth Palace Chapel in 1882. 
His experience of twenty-one years as a mission- 
ary in southern India gave him a rare equipment 
for his work in Burma. After an episcopate of 
twenty years, filled with good works, failing 
health compelled him to resign in 1902. His 



MISSIONS 237 

death occurred May 2, 1906. "Though unable 
to master any of the languages of Burma, his 
episcopate will be memorable for his deep, fer- 
vent piety, his kindliness of manner, genial- 
ity, and benevolent liberality. He bequeathed 
Rs.50,000 for the diocese and Rs. 10,000 to his 
old college, St. Augustine's, Canterbury." His 
successor, Bishop A. M. Knight, is carrying on the 
work of his predecessors with zeal and success. 

The S. P. G. missionaries have not overlooked Literary 
the importance of translations. The prayer- 
book, hymn-books, tracts, catechisms,, and 
school-books have been translated into both 
Burmese and Karen; while Dr. Marks trans- 
lated a part of the New Testament in 1863, 
the work being subsequently revised and ex- 
tended by a committee of missionaries. 

The Ladies' Association, organized in 1866 
"for promoting the education of females in 
India and other heathen countries in connection 
with the missions of the Society for the Prop- 
agation of the Gospel," has effectively coop- 
erated with the S. P. G. in its work in Burma, 
conducting the schools for girls and doing a gra- 
cious work in the homes of the people along the 
many lines which womanly tact and sympathy 
suggest. We have already referred to St. 
Mary's School, which now has 335 pupils, of 
whom 112 are boarders. At the last annual 
examination, eighty-six per cent passed with 
satisfactory grades. The All Saints Girls' 
School at Shwebo has 33 boarders and 50 day 
scholars. 



238 BURMA 

TheAmeri- The oldest and largest missionary work in 

can Baptists Burma is that of the American Baptists. 

Burma has a large place in their affections, for 

it was their first and, for a considerable time, 

their only foreign mission field. 

The beginnings of their missionary effort are 
Adoniram associated with the splendid name of Adoniram 
Judson Judson, their first missionary. He had in- 

tended to go to India, but the bitter opposition 
of the East India Company compelled the 
missionaries to move from place to place, and 
finally, to avoid forcible deportation to Eng- 
land, to escape on the wretched sailing vessel, 
The Gceorgiana, to Rangoon, Burma, where 
they arrived July 13, 1813. It was in this 
strange and unplanned way that the great 
Judson reached his field, and that the Baptist 
Church began its work in Burma. Three 
years of loneliness passed before any associates 
arrived. 

There were no helps in language study, and 
Dr. Judson had to compile his own dictionary 
and grammar. But so diligently did he toil, 
that by 1816 he had completed a translation 
of the gospel of Matthew and a few tracts. 
Other translations were gradually added until 
Judson had given the Burmese a version of the 
Word of God and had contributed helps for 
its study and for the instruction of the people 
which have placed his name among the great 
constructive bibliographers of history. 

The troubled state of the country frequently 
caused anxiety. When war with England 



missions 239 

appeared imminent, the British traders in Persecution 
Rangoon hurriedly fled. Dr. Judson was 
away from home at the time, and indeed was 
supposed to have perished. Mrs. Judson's 
frightened associates urged her to flee with 
them before all were killed ; but she refused to 
desert her husband. The result justified the 
courage of the devoted wife. Storms had 
thwarted Judson's plans, he was unharmed, 
and within a week he returned in good health. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hough had become discouraged 
and soon left, but nothing could dismay Dr. 
and Mrs. Judson, and they stayed on alone 
till 1818, when Mr. and Mrs. Colman and Mr. 
and Mrs. Wheelock joined them. Two joyful 
events marked the next year, 1819. In April 
the first church building was opened, and June 
19, six years after Judson's arrival, the first 
Burman was baptized. This convert, Moung First 
Nau, was notable, not only as the first-fruit of Ba P tism 
Christianity in Burma, but as the first Buddhist 
to accept Christ. November 7 saw two more 
converts, and the first church in Burma was 
organized with the three Burmans and the three 
missionary families. 

The prospect was encouraging, when clouds 
again appeared. Wheelock sickened and sailed 
for home, only to commit suicide in delirium 
before his ship had gotten out of the Bay of 
Bengal. Officials and priests, who had at first 
despised the missionaries, became hostile as the 
work prospered. Intimidation quickly emptied 
the church. Judson and Colman went to Ava 



240 



BURMA 



Loneliness 



The Burman 
war 



Jndson 
imprisoned 



to ask an audience with the King. He refused 
to see them. Mrs. Judson's health gave way 
and she was compelled to leave for America. 
Dr. Judson heroically remained at his post, a 
solitary man in a hostile heathen city, till Dr. 
Jonathan Price arrived in December, 1821. 
The tide of official favor now turned again. 
The King heard of Dr. Price's medical skill 
and invited him to Ava and offered him a 
house. Judson went with him. Mrs. Judson 
returned. Mr. and Mrs. Wade arrived and, 
with Mr. Hough, who had come back, manned 
Rangoon, which now had eighteen converts, 
while the Judsons and Price opened the work 
at Ava under royal patronage. 

As before, the day of prosperity was short. 
The first Burman war with England naturally 
led the Burmans to hate all white men. Hough 
and Wade were thrown into prison. They were 
liberated when the British captured Rangoon, 
May 23, 1824, but the station was destroyed 
and the missionaries removed to Calcutta. 
Meantime, Judson and Price had been arrested 
at Ava, June 8, and for a year and seven 
months they lay in a foul native prison, chained 
so that they could move only with great diffi- 
culty, breathing hot, fetid air, and surrounded 
by the filth of native criminals of the lowest 
class. Their jailers gave them no food, and they 
would have starved if Mrs. Judson had not 
brought provisions to them. When her money 
was exhausted, she was forced to beg food like 
a mendicant from house to house to keep her 



MISSIONS 241 

husband alive, adopting native dress to lessen 
the probability of insult. Once thieves broke 
into her house and stole everything that could 
be carried away. Twice she was dangerously ill, 
once by confinement and once by spotted fever. 

But the courage of the heroic pair never Heroism 
faltered. "What about the prospects of the 
conversion of the heathen ? " sneered a fellow- 
prisoner to Judson. " The prospects are just 
as bright as the promises of God," calmly re- 
plied the missionary. 

At last, the captives were released through His Release 
the kindly intervention of the British General 
Campbell, and with his devoted wife Judson went 
to Amherst, the British headquarters, arriving 
July 2, 1826. " A sadder spectacle has seldom 
been presented to living human beings than that 
which was offered to the English camp by those 
liberated captives. They were covered with 
filthy rags, they were worn to skin and bones, 
and their haggard countenances, sunken, wan- 
dering eyes, told but too plainly the frightful 
story of their long suffering, their incessant 
alarms, and their apprehension of a doom worse 
than death." 

As soon as Judson was able to travel, the Brit- 
ish asked him to return to Ava to act as inter- 
preter for the commissioners who were negotiat- 
ing peace. While he was absent, the exhausted 
body of Mrs. Judson succumbed, and she died, 
October 24, 1826, with no companions but a few 
natives. " So passed away one of the genuine 
heroines of earth. She was the first woman to 



242 BURMA 

enter upon Christian labors in a purely heathen 
kingdom in the East, and was the heroic pioneer 
of those who have followed her as she followed 
the Lord Jesus Christ." 

The victory of the British enabled Judson to 
continue his work under more favorable auspices. 
He married twice more. His second wife, to 
whom he was married in 1834, was Mrs. Sarah 
Hall Boardman, the widow of one of his former 
associates. She died in 1845, at St. Helena, 
when they were on their way home on furlough. 
The third wife, Emily Chubbuck, to whom he 
was married in the United States in 1847, 
survived him. It is interesting to recall that 
all three of these wives became famous in mis- 
sionary annals as women of unusual strength 
and beauty of character and efficiency of mis- 
His sionary service. The great Judson himself, 

after a career of extraordinary usefulness, finally 
broke down in 1850, and left Burma, in the hope 
that a sea voyage would restore his shattered 
health. But within a few days he died, April 
12, 1850, and his body was buried at sea. Thus 
pathetically ended the life of one of the world's 
great men, a master-builder for God. There is 
no grave over which a stone can be erected, but 
redeemed Burma will be his monument. 

The mission was now well established. 
Reenforcements were added from time to time. 
New stations were opened, and churches and 
. schools multiplied. 

There are two methods of developing a field, 
the intensive and the extensive. The former 



death 



missions 243 

concentrates as large a force as possible on a Character 
given area with a view to its complete evangeli- of work 
zation within the shortest practicable period. 
The other distributes a force so as to occupy- 
more countries, getting the Gospel started in 
each, with the expectation that it will spread. 
Both methods have their advantages and dis- 
advantages, and most of the boards have adopted 
one method in some fields and the other in 
different fields. The Baptists in Burma have 
adopted the intensive method. They have sent 
more money and more missionaries to Burma 
than to any other single region. Their pres- 
ent expenditure on this one mission is now 
8238,000 annually, and the members of the 
Mission number 192. This is a larger expen- 
diture and a larger force, in proportion to the 
population, than for any other mission of any 
board with which we are acquainted, and the 
proportion is increased when we remember that 
three-fourths of the work is among less than one- 
tenth of the population, the Burmans having 
proved less responsive to Christianity than the 
Karens. Already prepared for the Gospel by 
their traditions, the first Karen convert, baptized 
by Dr. Boardman at Tavoy, May 16, 1828, 
proved the first-fruits of a mighty harvest. 
This convert, Ko Tha Byu, was a remarkable Ko Tha Byu 
man. At the time of his conversion he gave 
little promise of his future power. He had 
already attained middle life ; he had no educa- 
tion, and indeed appeared to have rather a dull 
mind. When roused, however, his temper was 



244 BURMA 

furious. He was, however, notorious for robbery 
and violence, no less than thirty murders hav- 
ing been ascribed to him. The Holy Spirit 
wrought an extraordinary change in this man. 
He immediately gave himself wholly to Chris- 
tian work, and soon wielded such an extraordi- 
nary power over his people that he became 
known as the Karen Apostle. 

The work among the Karens was now pushed 
vigorously in various directions. The indefat- 
Dr. Vinton igable labors of Dr. J. H. Vinton in relieving 
suffering in the famine which followed the war 
added to receptiveness of these long-oppressed 
people. Baptisms multiplied. By 1852, the 
year of the second Burmese War, Karen Bap- 
tist churches had a membership of over 6000. 

Self-support kept pace with evangelization. 
Karen evangelists were almost wholly sup- 
ported by the Mission, but the Rev. E. L. 
Abbott early began to press the importance 
of self-support, and he was powerfully reen- 
forced by the Rev. E. H. Beecher and Dr. 
Vinton. The readiness with which the Karen 
Christians responded proved the genuineness 
of their faith. By 1849, the Karen Church 
at Bassein voluntarily assumed self-support. 
The next year it formed a Home Mission 
Society, and this was followed in 1854 by a 
similar organization in Rangoon. These socie- 
ties are notable in the history of missions, as 
they are believed to be the first organizations 
of native Christians for giving the Gospel to 
their own people. 



MISSIONS 245 

The Ko San Ye Movement was an interesting Ko San Ye 
development of this spirit. It took its name 
from an illiterate man who was converted in 
1890, and who became a preacher of such 
spiritual force that he has come to be known 
as the Karen Moody. He founded an indepen- 
dent movement supported by the Karens them- 
selves, but in friendly cooperation with the mis- 
sionaries, who watched it with deep sympathy 
and great rejoicing, though not without anxiety 
at times. Ko San Ye's influence over his people 
became almost absolute, yet in spite of all the 
reverence and even adoration which were ac- 
corded him, he preserved his humility of spirit. 1 

A British official has gladly testified to the 
change which the Gospel has wrought in the 
Karens : — 

" Forty years ago, they were a despised, grovelling, 
timid people, held in contempt by the Burmese. At the 
sound of the gospel message, they sprang to their feet, 
as a sleeping army springs to the bugle-call. The dream 
of hundreds of years was fulfilled ; the God who had cast 
them off for their unfaithfulness had come back to them ; 
they felt themselves a nation once more. Their progress Success 
since has been by leaps and bounds, all from an impetus among 
within themselves, and with no direct help from their Karens 
rulers ; and they bid fair soon to outstrip their Burmese 
conquerors in all the arts of peace." 

While the largest and most successful work 
continued to be done among the Karens, other 
races were not neglected. A general conven- 

1 Cf . " Ko San Ye, the Karen Moody and His Remarkable 
Work in Burma," a leaflet by the Rev. S. R. Vinton, pub- 
lished by the A. B. M. U. 



246 BURMA 

tion of all the Baptist missionaries in Burma 
at Moulmein in April, 1853, decided to open 
work among the Burmans as opportunity- 
offered, and the first Burman association of 
1860 at Thonze and the Burma-Baptist Mis- 
sionary Convention which was formerly organ- 
ized at Rangoon in 1865 gave earnest attention 
to the spiritual needs of this numerous people. 
By 1885, the year of the third war with Eng- 
land, missions to the Burmans were being con- 
ducted at Rangoon, Moulmein, Tavoy, Bassein, 
Henzada, Toungoo, Shwegyin, Prome, Thonze, 
andZigon ; while the British annexation of Upper 
Burma, which followed the war, gave the mis- 
sionaries an opportunity which was immediately 
utilized of establishing a station at Mandalay. 
This was soon followed by opening of work 
among the Burmans at Myingyan, Sandoway, 
Meiktila, and Pegu in Lower Burma. Pyinmana 
was added in 1905. 
Difficulties The work among the Burmans has proved to 
be much slower and more difficult than that 
among the other races. Inordinate pride and 
indolence make a combination hard to over- 
come. All agree with the Church of England 
Bishop of Calcutta, who, after a visit to Burma 
in 1870, wrote : " The difficulties of Buddhism 
are extreme. Every one, lay and clerical, 
speaks of them as even greater than those 
of Hinduism and Mohammedanism." How- 
ever, the Baptist Union reported, in 1907, 3017 
communicants in connection with its Burman 
work. The missionaries point with satisfac- 



MISSIONS 247 

tion to the Burman Church at Moulmein, which 
has a membership of over 300, and which owns 
its excellent property, pays all its current ex- 
penses, and contributes liberally to Christian 
work both home and foreign. 

Work among the Talains began as far back Work 
as the days of Dr. Judson, who baptized the S, m01 ?s 
first Talain convert, Ko Myat Kyau, in 1828. 
The Rev. J. M. Haswell was the first mission- 
ary to learn the Talain language and to trans- 
late the New Testament. The work was 
conducted in connection with the Burman 
Church until 1901, when the Rev. and Mrs. 
A. C. Darrow were set apart specifically for 
the Talain work with headquarters at Moul- 
mein. A church of 24 members was organ- 
ized December 2, 1905, and the work has 
spread among many of the Talain villages 
near Moulmein, the present number of con- 
verts being 278. 

The Rev. Moses H. Bixby founded the and Shans 
work among the Shans in 1860 at Toungoo, 
in whose district there were about 10,000 of 
these people whom the civil war had driven 
from their own habitat. The work was con- 
ducted through native interpreters, until 1867, 
when the Rev. and Mrs. J. N. Cushing and 
Miss Gage arrived and began to study the 
Shan language. Dr. Cushing made several 
expeditions into Shan territory in 1869, push- 
ing his trip as far as Keng-tung. In 1876, work 
among the Shans was opened in Bhamo. In 
1890, stations were opened at Hsipaw and 



248 BURMA 

Mongnai ; in 1893, at Namkham; and in 1901, 
at Keng-tung. The Baptists now report 6342 
communicants among the Shans, 6100 of these 
being in the Keng-tung field. 

The first convert among the Chins was " a 
poor, disfigured, tattooed woman," who was led 
to the Saviour by a Bur man Christian woman, 
and was baptized by Dr. Mason at Tavoy in 
1837. It was not until 1852 that she was 
joined by another Chin woman ; but by 1858 
there were fifteen Chins connected with the 
Church at Prome. Mrs. B. C. Thomas took 
a special interest in them, and with some of 
them for helpers started a school and began 
evangelistic work among the Chins of Henzada 
and Sandoway. Later, a station was opened 
at Thayetmyo. In 1899, the Rev. and Mrs. A. 
E. Carson made the long and toilsome journey 
up the Chindwin River and through the wild 
mountain region to Haka. They found the 
natives " filthy beyond imagination, given to 
awful drunken revelries, having strange and 
weird ceremonies, indulging in tribal feuds at 
frequent intervals, and dwelling in darkness 
which could be felt." It was a peculiarly 
lonely and trying field, but the missionaries 
stuck to their posts, save when illness com- 
pelled them to leave temporarily, and Haka 
has now become the centre of a small but en- 
couraging work. The number of Chin con- 
verts in connection with the Baptist Mission 
is now 776. 

The Kachins attracted the attention of Dr. 



missions 249 

Kincaid as far back as 1837; but his effort to TheKachins 
reach these turbulent barbarians in their moun- 
tain fastnesses ended at Bhamo, where he was 
seized and forced to return. Two missionaries 
of the China Inland Mission, in 1876, succeeded 
in reaching the Kachins and in doing some work 
among them in connection with their mission 
to the Chinese, and in 1877 the Rev. J. Lyon 
and the Rev. J. A. Freiday were sent out by 
the Baptist Union for this work. Mr. Lyon 
died of quick consumption within a short time 
after his arrival ; but before the year 1878 
ended, the Rev. and Mrs. W. H. Roberts had 
come to take the vacant place. Establishing 
their residence at Bhamo, Mr. Roberts made 
many itinerating journeys into the hills, and 
his account of them forms an interesting leaf- 
let. 1 The experiences of the missionaries among 
the Kachins abounded in incidents of hardship, 
privation, and sorrow. The health of both Mr. 
and Mrs. Roberts was wrecked, the latter dy- 
ing, and the former being obliged to return to 
America, though he was able about a year later 
to go back to his work. Undismayed, suc- 
cessors took their places. In 1893, the Rev. 
George J. Geis started a station at Myitkyina, 
which has now become well equipped. There 
are schools for the Kachins at Bhamo, in two of 
the Christian villages and in six of the moun- 
tain villages. "Mr. Roberts, who through dark- 
ness and difficulty as well as in the brighter 

lu Pioneering among the Kachins," published bv the 
A. B. M. U. 



250 BURMA 

days of its history, has stood by the Kachin 
Mission, feels profoundly grateful for what has 
been wrought in the lives of these people." 

We have already referred to the Telugus and 
Tamils who came to Burma from India. The 
Rev. and Mrs. W. F. Armstrong were set 
apart for work among them in 1894. Ran- 
goon, Moulmein, Bassein, and Mandalay are 
the chief centres of this work. There are two 
large schools, one at Rangoon and one at Moul- 
mein, which have taught all together about 5000 
pupils since their establishment. 
English Baptist work among the English-speaking 

Work people of Burma, who include a very large 

number of Eurasians, is conducted at Ran- 
goon, Moulmein, and Mandalay. There are 
good churches in each of these cities, Immanuel 
Baptist Church in Rangoon being particularly 
large and well organized. Many Eurasian chil- 
dren attend the Rangoon Baptist College, and 
in Moulmein there is a high school for Eu- 
rasians in charge of three devoted women. 
Comparatively little has been done among the 
Chinese in Burma, but there is a Chinese Bap- 
tist congregation in Rangoon under the care of 
a native pastor. 

All together, the Baptist Missionary Union 
reports (1907) 29 stations, 192 foreign mis- 
sionaries, of whom 79 are men, 1909 native 
workers, 58,642 communicants, 843 organized 
churches, of which 679 are wholly self-support- 
ing, and 691 schools of various grades, of which 
548 are self-supporting. The number of self- 



MISSIONS 251 

supporting churches and schools eloquently 
testifies to the genuineness of the native Chris- 
tians as well as to the wisdom of the mission- 
aries. In one district among the Karens, the 
13,000 Christians raised last year 73,823 rupees Results 
for the full cost of their pastors, evangelists, 
teachers, and students, gave 6450 rupees to 
their home missionary society, and supported 
two workers among the Kachins, and within 
recent years they have raised 100,000 rupees 
to endow their church. 

The Baptist Union and its missionaries early 
realized that their work would require not only 
a large number of ordinary schools, but some 
institutions of higher grade for the training 
of native pastors and helpers and teachers. A 
Burman Theological Seminary was therefore School 
founded at Moulmein in 1838 by the Rev. Dr. Work 
E. A. Stevens. The Seminary was moved to 
Rangoon in 1862, and its scope widened so as to 
include students of other races. It was soon 
seen that the Karen work would require 
such an exceptionally large number of native 
preachers as to justify a separate theological 
seminary for them, and one was established at 
Moulmein in 1845 by the Rev. Dr. J. G. Bin- 
ney. It was afterwards found, however, that 
Rangoon was a better centre for this institu- 
tion as well as for the Burman Seminary, and so it 
also was removed to the metropolis. These theo- 
logical seminaries have come to be indispen- 
sable parts of the Baptist movement in Burma. 
They are beautifully located at Insein, a suburb 



252 BURMA 

of Rangoon. They have good faculties both 
foreign and native, and a curriculum which 
gives an admirable training to the young men 
who are to go out as preachers of Christ among 
their own people. The Burman Seminary now 
reports 31 students, and the Karen, 138. 

College The year 1872 saw the beginnings, also by 

Dr. Binney, of Rangoon Baptist College, an 
institution which has become a power for Chris- 
tian education. Under the Rev. C. H. Car- 
penter, who became president in 1873, an ex- 
cellent property was secured. His successors 
in the presidency extended the work and equip- 
ment, until the Rev. Dr. J. N. Cushing, who 
presided over the institution from 1892 until 
his death in 1905, developed the curriculum 
from that of a high school to that of a full col- 
lege in affiliation with Calcutta University. 
The College now reports 1060 students, and its 
graduates are to be found in positions of leader- 
ship all over Lower Burma. The new building, 
" Cushing Hall," now about completed, is to 
cost $ 60,000, of which the government furnishes 
one-half. 

Medical The Baptist Union has not attempted medical 

work in Lower Burma, as there are civil hospitals 
and the usual staff of physicians and surgeons 
in connection with the government service ; 
but medical missionaries have been appointed 
to the more isolated stations in the north. The 
Union now reports thirteen physicians, three hos- 
pitals, and seven dispensaries, which all together 
treated last year 13,697 patients. 



Work 



missions 253 

In nearly all the work of the Baptists in Burma, 
the Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society 
has effectively cooperated. The Society sent out 
the first medical missionary to Burma, Miss Ellen 
E. Mitchell, M.D., who, after twenty-one years 
of devoted service, died at Moulmein in 1901. 
We have already referred to the heroic and 
self-sacrificing labors of the first Mrs. Judson, 
and much might be said of many other mis- 
sionary wives and of the considerable number of 
single women who have labored in Burma, many 
of whom have been supported by the Woman's 
Society. 

An interesting pamphlet entitled " Retro- 
spect," published by the Woman's Society, de- 
scribes 23 boarding and high schools in Burma 
which have been either founded or are maintained 
by the Society, and this list does not include a 
considerable number of village schools. The 
Kemendine School in a suburb of Rangoon, three Woman's 
and a half miles from the city, has a fine campus Work 
of eight acres with two large school buildings 
and a residence for the missionary teachers, be- 
sides the usual outbuildings. The Pegu High 
School, also at Rangoon, was established by Mr. 
and Mrs. Vinton during the revival in the fifties, 
and the present building is appropriately called 
the Vinton Memorial. The Burman Woman's 
Bible School at Rangoon, founded in 1893 by 
Miss Ranney and Miss Phinney, has a good 
building at Insein, and enrolls several students 
from other races as well as the Burman. The 
Karen Woman's Bible School, founded at Thaton 



254 BURMA 

by Miss E. Lawrence and moved to Rangoon in 
1897, is also doing excellent work. At Moul- 
mein one finds the Morton Lane Boarding School 
for Burmese girls, the Burmese Boys' School, 
and the English Girls' High School. Both at 
Rangoon and Moulmein, the visitor should not 
fail to see the kindergartens which are conducted 
by the missionaries of the Woman's Society, 
while many of the other Baptist stations in 
Burma have schools which are doing an excel- 
lent work, the Burman Boys' High School at 
Mandalay reporting 300 pupils. The Baptist 
Union testifies that the women "have now so 
extended their sphere of influence that a large 
part of the school work of the Missionary Union 
has passed to their care, and their many repre- 
sentatives are rendering a service, than which 
none is acknowledged to be more strongly evan- 
gelistic, or more influential in the making of the 
character of the people of Burma. Some of 
these women have been called upon at times to 
stand alone in stations where there were no men, 
and in such trying situations have rendered a ser- 
vice to the Union of unquestioned importance, 
their wisdom and perseverance having been ex- 
ceeded only by their patience in assuming re- 
sponsibilities far heavier than they should ever 
have been called upon to bear." 
Printing- The printing-press came to Burma with Felix 

press Carey, and after many vicissitudes developed into 

the great institution now known as the Ameri- 
can Baptist Mission Press of Rangoon. It has 
published the Bible complete in Judson's trans- 



missions 255 

lation of Burman, 1840, Mason's Sgaw-Karen, 
1853, Brayton's Pwo-Karen, 1883, and Cushing's 
Shan, 1891, besides several editions of the New 
Testament and innumerable portions and parts 
of the Bible in four other dialects. Many- 
books and countless tracts have been issued, 
and two religious papers of considerable cir- 
culation are regularly printed, The Religious 
Herald in Burma, founded in 1842, and The 
Morning Star in Karen, founded in 1843. 

With the efficient government, security for Prospects 
life and property, good roads, railways, and 
telegraphs, which British rule brings, the open- 
ness of the whole country to missionary work, 
the broad and deep foundations that have been 
laid by the devoted missionaries of pioneer 
days, the well-established churches and institu- 
tions, and a large and rapidly growing native 
church, the outlook for the evangelization of 
Burma is most encouraging. Serious obstacles 
still exist, but if the faith and courage of the 
immortal Judsons animate their successors of 
to-day, these obstacles will be overcome, and all 
Burma shall know the Lord. 



KOREA 



CHAPTER VII 
KOREA 

THE COUNTRY 

Korea projects from the northeastern part Area 
of Asia as Florida projects from the southern 
part of the United States, though Korea is 
larger than Florida, estimates of its area vary- 
ing from 82,000 to 92,000 square miles. It is 
therefore nearly as large as New York and 
Pennsylvania combined. It is 660 miles long, 
150 wide, and has a coast-line 1740 miles in 
extent. 

The eastern side is rather precipitous and has Coast 
a small tide, only about two feet. The west 
coast slopes more gradually and the tide some- 
times reaches thirty-eight feet. There are sev- 
eral harbors, chief among which are Wonsan 
(sometimes spelled Gensan), on the northeast 
coast, Masampo and Fusan at the southern end 
of the peninsula, and Chemulpo, Chinampo, and 
Yong-ampo on the west coast. Many islands 
border the southwest coast, and the channel be- 
tween them is so tortuous and so inadequately 
charted that navigation in bad weather is haz- 
ardous. 

Lying between the thirty-fourth and forty- Mountains 
third parallels, the climate is that of the north 
temperate zone. A range of mountains runs 
irregularly the entire length of the peninsula, 

259 



260 KOBEA 

with outflanking ridges of varying height. 
The range is not lofty, few peaks reaching an 
altitude of 5000 feet. In the north, however, 
Mt. Paik-to-san (Ever White Head Peak) 
attains 8000 feet. It is, therefore, a famous 
mountain in Korea, and is regarded as sa- 
cred. It is an extinct volcano, and the crater 
is filled with water, forming a lake of great 
beauty and of unknown depth. Celebrated 
also are the Diamond Mountains in the prov- 
ince of Kang-wen. 1 

The general surface of the country is much 
diversified. Korea is a land of mountains and 
valleys and streams, though there are few 
important rivers. The Noctong River in the 
south, the Han River in the centre, the Ta- 
tong in the north, the Tumen on the north- 
eastern frontier, and the Yalu on the north- 
western are the chief streams. The soil of the 
valleys is rich. Rice and beans, the staple food 
of the Koreans, are grown almost everywhere. 
Soil and The thrift of the Chinese or Japanese or the press- 
Scenery ure f a larger population could bring under 
cultivation many large areas which now lie 
idle, for of the 7,000,000 acres that could easily 
be tilled, only 3,185,000 are under cultivation. 

North of Pyeng Yang, the scenery becomes 
even more striking than it is in the central and 
southern parts of the country. The mountains 
are higher and the valleys narrower. Some 
of the villages are of Alpine picturesqueness. 

1 Cf. description by Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop in " Korea 
and Her Neighbors." 



THE PEOPLE 261 

Kwallondong, for example, nestles in a gorge 
that would make it famous if it were more 
accessible, while Kwen Myen lies cosily in one 
of the most lovely valleys in the world. 

THE PEOPLE 

The population is estimated to be 12,000,000. People 
The most prominent cities are : Seoul, the 
capital, on the Han River, 26 miles from the 
coast, population 250,000 (all figures are esti- 
mates) ; Song-do, 50 miles northwest of Seoul, 
the capital in the preceding dynasty, popula- 
tion over 60,000 ; Pyeng Yang, on the Ta-tong 
River, 50 miles from the sea, an ancient 
capital of historic fame, next to Seoul in 
present importance, population about 60,000; 
Chemulpo, the western gateway and port of 
Seoul, population 15,000 ; Fusan, the southern 
gateway, population 25,000 ; Taiku, 100 miles 
north of Fusan, population 50,000 ; Won-san, 
the northeastern gateway, with a particularly 
fine harbor, population 15,000 ; Eui-ju, the 
northwestern gateway, on the Yalu River, 
population 25,000. Small cities and market 
towns with populations ranging from 5000 to 
12,000 each are numerous, and villages are 
innumerable, the rural population not being 
scattered on farms as in England and America, 
but being segregated in hamlets for protection 
and companionship. 

The language differs from both the Japanese 
and Chinese, though the written characters 
chiefly used by the higher classes are Chinese. 



262 KOREA 

Language A different dialect is used by the common peo- 
ple. Formerly, this was held in contempt and 
was never used in writing. The missionaries 
have done much to give new dignity to this 
native dialect. They have translated the New 
Testament and many books, prepared gram- 
mars and dictionaries, and are fast rehabilitat- 
ing the language in some such way as Luther's 
translation of the Bible exalted the native Ger- 
man and as Wiclif's translation inaugurated 
a new era for English. Official papers are 
now usually published in Chinese, Korean, and 
Japanese. 

Race The people of Korea are often characterized 

as weak. It must be admitted that they lack 
the energy and ambition of the Japanese and 
the industry and persistence of the Chinese. 
But it should be remembered that for many 
centuries their position has been unfavorable 
to the development of strength and character. 
A comparatively small nation, hemmed in be- 
tween warlike Japan and mighty China, the 
Land of the Morning Calm was doomed from 
the outset to be a tributary state. The Kore- 
ans have become so accustomed to being pulled 
and hauled by contending masters, have been 
treated so unjustly by those who dominated 
them and so ground down into utter poverty 
by the greed and cruelty of their own magis- 
trates, that they have come to accept subjuga- 
tion and poverty as the natural concomitants 
of their life. It is not suprising, therefore, that 
the superior power of neighboring nations has 






THE PEOPLE 263 

taught the Koreans dependence, that the exac- 
tions of tax-gatherers have fostered deceit, and 
that the certainty that the results of toil could 
not be enjoyed has begotten indolence. 

The general poverty appears in the architec- Poverty 
ture. A country merchant in America lives in 
a better house than the Emperor of Korea, 
while hundreds of stables at home are more 
attractive than the official residence of a pro- 
vincial governor. The buildings are not only 
plain, but usually dilapidated. It seldom oc- 
curs to a Korean to make repairs, and so on 
every side and even in palaces and temples 
one sees crumbling walls and dirty court- 
yards. 

The most trying characteristic of the people Filthiness 
to a foreigner is their filthiness. The higher 
classes and the mission converts are clean, but 
the common people are as a whole unspeakably 
dirty. Garbage and offal are thrown on the 
ground and left to rot under the hot sun. 
Open ditches in the principal streets become 
choked with filth. Beside the average house 
is a tiny open trench into which all slops are 
cast. The trench ends a few feet from the 
house, and the filth seeps into the soil, often 
near the wells from which the drinking water 
is drawn. In the hot, wet months of July and 
August, a Korean city becomes a steaming cess- 
pool. Accordingly, dysentery, cholera, typhus 
and typhoid fevers, and kindred diseases rage 
at frequent intervals. The Japanese are ener- 
getically grappling with the problem of sani- 



264 



KOREA 



Position of 
Women 



tation, and have made marked improvements, 
particularly in the capital. But it will be a 
long time before the peasant Korean will be 
decently clean, except under compulsion. 

The position of woman is, of course, distinctly 
Asiatic. Her marriage is arranged without 
consulting her. There is no family life, as we 
understand the term. "A Korean regards his 
wife as far beneath him. He rarely consults 
her on anything serious, and though living 
under the same roof, one may say that hus- 
band and wife are widely separated. The 
female apartments among the higher classes 
resemble, in most respects, the zenanas of 
India." "What is woman in Korea!" bit- 
terly exclaimed a woman to a missionary who 
was urging her to send her daughter to school. 
"After the dogs and pigs were made, there 
was nothing ,)ef f > to be done, so woman was 
created — lowest of the low ! " 

The dress of the Korean is so distinctive 
that there is no possibility of mistaking him, 
no matter how many other nationalities may 
be represented about him. His garments are 
white and his hat of black thread or horsehair 
has a broad brim, a small round crown, and is 
tied under his chin. Not only does his dress 
indicate his nationality, but it plainly tells a 
number of interesting things about him. If 
the hat is white, he is betrothed. If a thin 
white cloth covers his nose and mouth, he is 
in mourning. If he wears his hair done up in 
a topknot, he is married. 



THE PEOPLE 



265 



This topknot is one of the most curious cus- Topknot 
toms in Korea. It is as characteristic as the 
queue in China, and more significant, for it 
originated, not as a badge of submission to a 
conqueror, but as an expression of a people's 
most ancient and venerated beliefs. 

When, after their murder of the Queen, the 
Japanese directed that the topknot should be 
cut off, excitement and consternation were 
unparalleled. The Koreans submitted with 
little or no protest to many other changes 
that would have aroused an Anglo-Saxon peo- 
ple ; but when their topknot was touched, the 
anger of this peaceable race flamed up. The 
capital began to suffer for want of supplies. 
Business was paralyzed. The Japanese regime 
was brief and the order was soon rescinded. 
Now that the Japanese are again in control, 
they are renewing their efforts to abolish the 
topknot. No order has been issued, but the 
new Emperor, the Crown Prince, and several 
members of the court were induced to cut off 
their topknots at the time of the coronation, 
August 27, 1907 ; and under ro}^al example 
and the known wishes of their rulers, the days 
of this notable native custom appear to be pass- 
ing with the bound feet of Chinese women. 

Physically, the average Korfean is strong and Physique 
well developed. His personal courage is good, 
as he has repeatedly shown in his former wars 
with the Japanese ; though his lack of organi- 
zation and competent leadership and his igno- 
rance of the weapons and methods of modern 



266 KOREA 

warfare make him helpless before the Japanese 
of to-day. Intellectually, he is quite the equal 
of either the Japanese or the Chinese. He 
develops quickly under education. By com- 
mon consent, the best address at the Inter- 
national Student Federation in 1906 in Tokyo, 
where all the leading races of Asia were repre- 
sented, was made by a Korean. 
Friendliness The people are naturally kindly and peace- 
able. "We had some opportunity to test their 
feeling, for we made a long journey through 
the interior in chairs, on ponies, and afoot. 
We ate in native huts and slept in native inns, 
with our luggage and supplies piled in the open 
courtyard. The people manifested great curi- 
osity, following us in crowds. They had seen 
a few foreign men, but a white woman was 
rare, and aroused as much excitement as a 
circus in an American town. The Korean 
women thronged about Mrs. Brown, feeling 
of her shoes and dress, trying on her hat, ask- 
ing her to undo her hair, endeavoring to take 
off her wedding ring, and rubbing her cheek 
to see whether her complexion would come off, 
all the while excitedly jabbering and laughing 
Our at so strange an object. Privacy was impos- 

expenence s ible, and she was obliged not only to eat but 
to retire at night and to dress in the morning 
with the inquisitive eyes of Korean women at 
every chink. If there were none, the oiled 
paper on the windows was broken and the 
space quickly filled with the tousled heads of 
the curious. This, of course, is the experience 



THE PEOPLE 267 

of every woman missionary who goes among 
the villages. 

But not once was the slightest insolence 
shown, and not a penny's worth was stolen. 
Everywhere we were treated with a kindly hos- 
pitality which quite won our hearts. There 
were indeed a few places where it was difficult 
to purchase supplies; but as a rule the best 
that a village afforded was gladly placed at our 
disposal, and in several places the people re- 
fused to receive any compensation. The inva- 
riable salutation was a smiling inquiry : " Have 
you come in peace? " And when we left, the 
people would escort us some distance on our 
way, and then politely bid us good-by with 
the words : " May you go in the peace of God ! " 
It need hardly be said that these were usually 
Christians ; but we saw multitudes who were 
not, and while the heathen were more unkempt 
than the Christians, they, too, were invariably 
kind. He must be a hard-hearted man who 
could not love such a people and long to help 
them to higher levels of thought and life. 
With a good government, a fair chance, and a 
Christian basis of morals, the Koreans would 
develop into a fine race. 

Among a dozen millions of people there are 
of course some turbulent elements, while the 
most patient will sometimes turn upon their 
oppressors. The Tong-haks represent both 
classes. Some of the members of this famous 
society are mere robbers ; but many are men 
who have been goaded to desperation by wrong 



268 



KOREA 



Choi Chei 
Ou 



Revolutions and oppression. Revolutionary outbreaks have 
often occurred, and occasionally they have 
reached formidable proportions, as in the great 
uprising of 1894. There is much in the Tong- 
hak movement to stir the interest of the student. 
It began, like the Tai-ping Rebellion in China, 
as a religious reformation. Its founder, Choi 
Chei Ou, who had seen something of the Roman 
Catholic missionaries and had vaguely grasped 
some of their teachings, alleged that he had a 
vision in 1859, at his home in Kyeng Chu, in 
southern Korea. He forthwith proclaimed a 
new faith which was to include the best ele- 
ments of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and 
Romanism, and which he called Tong-hak or 
Eastern Learning. Followers multiplied. Per- 
secution naturally followed. Loyal at first to 
the dynasty, the hostility of the government 
and the sorrows of the people developed the 
Tong-haks, like the Tai-pings in China, into 
revolutionaries. With all their errors, the 
Tong-haks represent the blind but earnest 
groping of Korea after better things. Since 
the coming of the Japanese, this element of the 
population has received large accessions from 
patriotic Koreans who resent the domination of 
their new rulers. 



RELIGION 

Religion The traveller who comes to Korea from either 

Japan or China will be struck with the absence 
of those outward manifestations of religious 
observance which are so numerous in other 



RELIGION 269 

lands. " Indeed the visitor at first fails to see 
any visible signs of religious life among the 
people, and he is apt to jump to the conclusion 
that here is a people without a religion, a con- 
clusion both hasty and unwarranted." A closer 
study will show that while there is no out- 
wardly established religion with its temples 
and prescribed observances, there are religious 
customs which have great power over the lives 
of the people. Indeed Korea may be said to 
have three religions. 

Buddhism has only a nominal hold. It en- Buddhism 
tered Korea from China as far back as 371 a.d., 
and at one time attained great influence. But, 
like the Jesuits in some European countries, 
fondness for political intrigue resulted in over- 
throw. The priests made themselves so much 
disliked and feared that for more than 500 
years they were forbidden to enter the capital. 
Not till a short time ago was this prohibition 
repealed. To-day the priests can often be seen 
outside the walls, but they appear to have but 
a small following, and they look dejected and 
dirty. 

Confucianism is also a religion in Korea, Confu- 
though, as in China, it is really not a religion cianism 
in the strict sense of the term. Ancestral wor- 
ship prevails very generally, and it may, there- 
fore, be classed among the religions of the 
country. A well-to-do Korean usually has a 
small separate building behind his house where 
he keeps his ancestral tablets. 

Shamanism is the dominant faith, or rather 



270 



KOREA 



Shamanism the dominant superstition. It peoples air, 
earth, and water with evil spirits, and leads 
the terrified people to adopt all sorts of expedi- 
ents to propitiate or outwit the angry demons. 
Near almost every house may be found a small 
stake driven into the ground, the exposed part 
being wrapped with straw and topped with a 
bit of white paper, on which some words of 
alleged mystical power have been inscribed. 
The object of this stake is to keep the god of 
the site in good humor. 

Many a time, as we travelled in the interior, 
we saw by the wayside a tree about whose 
trunk were piles of stones and from whose 
branches were fluttering bits of colored rags. 
We learned on inquiring that the poor people 
imagined that an evil spirit inhabited the tree. 
The spirit was, however, believed to be curious 
as well as malignant, and so to divert his atten- 
tion the traveller would toss a stone about the 
base of the tree, or tear a strip from his garment 
and fasten it to a limb; and while the curious 
demon was examining the stone or rag, the 
frightened Korean would dodge past. Hill- 
Shrines tops have shrines, — small, dilapidated buildings 
containing images or paper pictures of mythi- 
cal beings. The ridge-poles of public buildings 
and of city gates are usually adorned with queer, 
misshapen figures which are believed to be a 
protection to the occupants of the building or 
the dwellers in the city. 

Almost every object in nature is supposed to 
be animated by a demon and almost every sound 



THE GOVERNMENT AND JAPANESE 271 

in the air to be caused by one. Pain means that 
a demon has gotten into the body, and the method 
of treatment is to kill the demon that is causing 
it. Officers of exalted rank call in blind sorcer- Sorcery 
ers to perform magical ceremonies over a sick 
or injured member of the family, or to select a 
lucky day for the marriage of a son or a daugh- 
ter. No right-minded person will ridicule this 
superstition. Rather will he be deeply moved 
by its pathos and often by its tragedy. 

THE EMPEKOR, THE GOVERNMENT, AND THE 
JAPANESE 

The Emperor boasts a lineage which many a Government 
more powerful monarch night envy, for the Yi 
dynasty, to which he belongs, ascended the 
throne in 1392. He is the thirty-first in direct 
line of succession from the founder of the dy- 
nasty, and ascended the throne in 1907. The 
circumstances of his accession were inglorious. 

The limits of this little volume do not permit Recent War 
a discussion of the Russo-Japanese War in its 
relation to Korea. Suffice it here that Korea's 
weakness and its position in the Far East ren- 
dered its subjugation by some foreign power in- 
evitable. The only question was: " Under which 
King, Bezonian " — Russia's or Japan's ? The 
latter won, and therefore her first act was to 
occupy Korea. 

The Emperor at that time, Yi Heni, who had 
ruled since 1864, was naturally restive under 
the domination of the Japanese. A man of 
flabby will and helpless incompetence as a ruler, 



272 KOREA 

he was nevertheless not destitute of royal pride, 
and he would not have been human if he had 
not felt aggrieved when he was despoiled of his 
power. He hated the Japanese, partly because 
he regarded them as hereditary enemies, and 
partly because they were less disposed than the 
Russians to flatter him and to supply his finan- 
cial necessities. Failing to recognize the hope- 
lessness of his situation, he made his palace a 
centre of intrigue against the Japanese. He 
was too helpless to do anything that could seri- 
ously affect their plans, but he could do quite 
enough to irritate the Japanese in a hundred 
ways which Oriental duplicity so well under- 
stands. 
Korean The limit of Japanese patience was reached 

Diplomacy when? in the spring of 19Q1 ^ the Emperor sent 

a delegation to the International Conference at 
The Hague, to urge the interference of Western 
nations. There was something pathetic in the 
appearance of the forlorn but patriotic Koreans 
pleading for a lost cause, for of course The Hague 
Commissioners could not receive them. The 
Japanese were naturally furious. The Korean 
Emperor denied that he was responsible for the 
delegation, but no one believed him. 

July 18, the Korean Cabinet Ministers waited 
upon his Majesty and humbly but firmly rep- 
resented to him the serious dangers to which 
he was exposing his country by his continued 
opposition to the Japanese, and advised him to 
abdicate. The Emperor listened with mingled 
rage and consternation ; but after long and 



THE GOVERNMENT AND JAPANESE 273 

stormy conferences with them and his Elder 
Statesmen, the crushed and humiliated monarch 
tremblingly affixed his signature to an imperial 
decree announcing the transfer of the throne to 
the Crown Prince. 

There was an immediate storm of protest from 
patriotic Koreans. Mobs surrounded the pal- 
ace, and for a time it looked as if there would be 
serious trouble. But the Japanese troops were 
ready, and gradually the tumult subsided, though 
many of the people remained sullen. 

Of course the Japanese virtuously announced Japan's 
that they had nothing whatever to do with the Attitude 
Emperor's abdication, that the step had been 
taken solely on the advice of wise and patriotic 
Koreans who had become firmly convinced that 
the retirement of the Emperor was necessary in 
the interests of the people themselves, that the 
Japanese would have preferred to have the 
old Emperor remain on the throne, etc. Of 
course, also, no one with intelligence enough 
to be out of a kindergarten doubts that the 
Japanese virtually deposed the troublesome old 
Emperor. Those Korean Ministers never would 
have taken such a step if they had not sup- 
posed that it would be pleasing to the Japanese ; 
and if they had been mistaken, the Japanese 
would have stopped them in a hurry. We need 
not waste sympathy, however, on the old Em- 
peror. He deserved all he got, and more. 

A great deal has been said about Japan's dis- 
regard of treaty rights in this matter; but the 
Japanese defend themselves by saying that 



274 KOREA 

they did not violate any treaty, as they left 
the throne in the hands of the Korean royal 
family, simply anticipating by a few years the 
transfer from father to son. However this 
may be, the Japanese lost no time in putting 
themselves into such relations with the situa- 
tion that the new Emperor would be even more 
helpless than his royal father. July 24, Yi 
Wan-yong, an able and well-educated, but no- 
toriously corrupt and easily bribed, official, 
acting by authority of the Emperor and Mar- 
quis Ito, signed an agreement at the Japanese 
Residency which declared that " the Govern- 
ment of Korea shall follow the directions of 
the Resident General" in enacting laws, ap- 
pointing and dismissing officials, and adminis- 
tering reforms. 

The Japanese are now reorganizing every 
department in accordance with their own ideas. 
Roads and railways are being constructed, 
telegraphs, telephones, waterworks, banks, and 
post-offices established, the currency reformed, 
courts reorganized, and sanitary measures en- 
forced. 

Whether the Japanese are brutally unjust in 
their dealings with the Koreans is a hotly dis- 
puted question into which we have not space 
to enter at length. 1 Undoubtedly the con- 

1 For the pro- Japanese view, cf. "With Marquis Ito in 
Korea," by Professor George T. Ladd ; for the an ti- Japan- 
ese view, cf. "Japan; An Experiment," by Professor 
Homer B. Hulbert and "The Unveiled East," by F. A. 
McKenzie. 



THE GOVERNMENT AND JAPANESE 275 

duct of the Japanese has been characterized by 
both good and evil. There never was a worse 
Augean stable to be cleansed than they found 
in the Land of the Morning Calm, and the situ- 
ation required decisive measures. Corrupt 
officials of course hoped for the triumph of the 
Russians, for Russia in Korea meant abundance 
of foreign gold, the continuance of profligacy, 
misgovernment, and filth, and, in general, the 
policy of laissez-faire. 

The Japanese, on the other hand, are reformers Reforms 
in Korea. They do not always act according 
to Occidental altruistic ideas. They are Ori- 
entals, their moral standards are low, and their 
methods often ruthless. But they insist on 
efficient government. The common people are 
resentful because the Japanese compel them to 
work on the roads, docks, railways, and other 
public improvements. The Japanese usually 
pay something for what they take, but the 
Korean interpreter or magistrate steals some or 
all of the money, so that the people get little. 
Besides, the indolent Korean does not like to 
be hustled, and his resentment bursts into fury 
when he is forced to clean his filthy alleys and 
adopt ordinary sanitary precautions. 

Such a process of reconstruction almost in- Reconstruc- 
evitably involves more or less irritation and tlon 
many individual cases of hardship. There are 
grave reasons for believing that the Japanese 
are making the process needlessty trying to the 
helpless natives. Many of the Japanese who 
poured into Korea after the war were greedy 



276 KOREA 

and unscrupulous adventurers, and their treat- 
ment of the Koreans was brutal and oppressive. 
Instances of outrage have been numerous. 
There are now more than 100,000 Japanese in 
Korea, and their attitude toward the natives 
is, as a rule, contemptuous or worse. Marquis 
Ito, however, declares that he is endeavoring 
to put a stop to this and that he will govern 
Korea for the benefit of the Koreans. 

Whatever may be thought of the justice of 
Japanese methods, the outcome will probably 
be the improvement of Korea. At any rate, 
the new era cannot possibly be worse than the 
old. Meantime, Americans, who are in a posi- 
tion to know wherein the Japanese are in the 
wrong, have the undoubted right to criticise, 
and if their criticisms are temperate and con- 
structive, they may help materially in securing 
just treatment for the helpless natives. But 
the foreigner who indiscriminately denounces 
the Japanese may discreetly remember that the 
alleged Christian nations have not set Japan 
a very good example in dealing with subject 
races. To say nothing of French misrule in 
Madagascar and Spanish in Cuba and the Phil- 
ippines, is any American proud of his coun- 
try's treatment of the Indians for 200 years 
after the white man came ? Can any Northern 
man think without shame of the " carpet-bag" 
days which followed the Civil War in the 
South? As for the Philippines, while the 
Executive Department of our government has 
done admirably, Congress has been deaf to all 



MISSIONARY WORK 277 

appeals for some laws which are imperatively 
required not only by justice but by humanity. 
Can we reasonably expect the non-Christian 
Japanese to do better by the Koreans than 
Christian nations have done by their conquered 
peoples ? We are not excusing the Japanese ; 
we are simply reminding ourselves of the mag- 
nitude and difficulty of their task and of our 
unfitness to be unduly censorious in judging 
them. 

MISSIONAKY WOKK 

The Protestant churches of America have Missions 
large interests in Korea. The first missionary 
visitor was a Scotchman, the Rev. John Ross, 
of Manchuria, who in 1873 made a tour across 
the border into northern Korea and studied 
its language to such effect that he was subse- 
quently able to translate the New Testament 
into Korean. Permanent mission work did 
not begin till the treaty of May 22, 1883, had 
brought Korea to the attention of the outside 
world and set the door ajar. Then far-seeing 
men in the United States began to consider the 
new opportunity and to plan for the outreach 
to the people whose need was so apparent. In 
February, 1884, Mr. D. W. McWilliams of Pioneers 
Brooklyn, N. Y., offered the Presbyterian Board 
$5000, for this purpose, out of the sum 
received by him from the estate of Mr. Fred- 
erick Marquand. There were the usual objec- 
tions to opening new work when the old was 
ill equipped ; but God was plainly leading, the 



278 



KOBE A 



gift was accepted, and a cable sped to Shanghai 
bearing the single word " Korea." Except 
for the efforts of the Scotchman on the 
northern border already noted, " this cable- 
gram was the first voice from Protestant Chris- 
tendom to molest the age-old heathenism of 
Korea. It was destined to wake the echoes 
from end to end of the kingdom." That mes- 
sage meant that a young physician and his 

Dr. Allen wife, Dr. and Mrs. H. N. Allen, who were wait- 
ing in Shanghai, were to go at once to Korea as 
the ambassadors of the Gospel of Christ. Dr. 
Allen promptly sailed, and reached Seoul Sep- 
tember 20, 1884, Mrs. Allen joining him a few 
months later. 

They met a hostile reception, and it is 
doubtful whether Dr. Allen could have re- 
mained if the American Minister, General 
Lucius H. Foote, had not appointed him 
surgeon to the Legation. December 4, a ban- 
quet was given at the palace to celebrate the 
opening of the first Korean post-office. A 
revolutionary, Kim Ok Kiun, took advantage 

Violence of the opportunity. In the tumult, several 
high officers were assassinated, and Prince Min 
Yong Ik, a nephew of the King, was badly 
wounded. Days of violence followed. The 
Japanese Legation, the post-office, the resi- 
dences of foreigners were looted, and on the 
tenth, the American Minister, the British and 
German Consuls-General, and all the other 
foreigners m Seoul, except Dr. and Mrs. Allen, 
fled to Chemulpo. The heroic missionary and 



MISSIONABY WORK 279 

his wife stood at their posts. Dr. Allen 
wrote : " We couldn't if we would and we 
wouldn't if we could. I came to do just such 
work. I can't leave these wounded people. 
. . . We shall live in the Legation with the 
old flag flying and trust the kind Father to 
care for us." 

Nor did the missionary shut himself up in victory 
the empty Legation. He bravely made his *°f Medical 

JMlSSlOHS 

way to the palace and offered to help the 
wounded. He found thirteen native physicians 
about to pour boiling wax into the gaping 
wounds of the Prince. By the exercise of tact, 
he succeeded in getting an opportunity to dress 
the wounds. To the surprise of every one, the 
Prince recovered, and Dr. Allen became the 
most famous man in the capital. The grate- 
ful King became his friend, and February 25, 
1885, a government hospital was opened under 
royal patronage, with the missionary in full 
charge. The King himself named it Hoy Min 
So, the House of Civilized Virtue. The 40 
beds were quickly filled, and within the first 
year 10,000 patients were treated. 

In this beneficent way, mission work obtained 
a foothold. April 5, 1885, the first resident 
ordained missionary arrived, the Rev. H. G. 
Underwood, also a Presbyterian, who speedily 
became a tower of strength to the infant 
mission. June 21, J. W. Heron, M.D., was 
added to the little company. 

Meantime, the Methodists were also plan- 
ning missionary work in Korea. Their atten- 



280 KOREA 

TheMetho- tion was first directed to the country by the 
dist Church Rev John F# Qoucher, D.D., president of the 
Woman's College, Baltimore, who, during a' 
trip across the continent in 1883, met the first 
Korean Embassy on its way to Washington. 
He formed a pleasant personal acquaintance 
with Prince Min Yong Ik, and invited him and 
several of his official associates to visit his 
home in Baltimore. He was so much inter- 
ested that he wrote to the Rev. Robert S. 
Maclay, D.D., superintendent of the Meth- 
odist Mission in Japan, suggesting that he 
visit Korea and report upon its possibilities as 
a mission field. Dr. and Mrs. Maclay made 
the desired visit in June, 1884, and sent back 
such a favorable report that Dr. Goucher was 
confirmed in his first impressions as to the im- 
portance of the field. He had already offered 
the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church 
$2000 for the opening of this work. To this 
sum the Board added $2000, and in the latter 
part of the year 1884, the Rev. H. G. Appen- 
zeller, William B. Scranton, M.D., and his 
mother, Mrs. M. F. Scranton, who was to do 
such a great work for the women and girls 
in connection with the Ewa school, were ap- 
pointed the first Methodist missionaries to 
Korea. They were delayed by the December 
revolution, but Mr. Appenzeller arrived at 
Chemulpo Easter Sunday, April 5, 1885, and 
Dr. Scranton the third of the following May. 
Both men developed qualities of leadership 
and soon became influential. 



MISSIONARY WORK 281 

July 5, 1886, three American school teachers, 
Messrs. Homer B. Hulbert, Dalzell A. Bunker, 
and George W. Gilmore, arrived, sent out by 
the American government at the request of 
the King to establish an English school. With 
them came a trained nurse and medical stu- 
dent, a Presbyterian, Miss Annie Ellers, who Annie Eiiers 
soon became physician to the Queen and 
swung the door of royal favor more widely 
open. After her marriage to Mr. Bunker, who 
joined the Methodist Mission, she was succeeded 
by Miss Lillias Horton, M.D., now Mrs. Under- 
wood, who arrived in 1888, and by her skill and 
tact gained great influence at the palace. 

But for several years progress was very slow. 
The missionaries were endeavoring to commu- 
nicate totally new ideas to a people who had 
been made sodden and apathetic by an inheri- 
tance of centuries of the rankest heathenism. 
It is difficult for us, who were born and bred 
in a Christian land and who have been familiar 
with the Gospel from our infancy, to understand 
how difficult it is for the Oriental mind to grasp 
the new conceptions which Christianity incul- 
cates. We need to remember that our own an- 
cestors were slow in grasping them and that 
more than one or two centuries passed before 
Christianity was clearly understood even by 
Anglo-Saxons. It is not surprising, therefore, 
that the superstition-clouded Korean listened 
dully and thought the missionary "a setter 
forth of strange gods." Gradually, however, 
the truth made its way. Dr. Underwood bap- 



282 KOREA 

tized the first convert in 1886, and the Metho- 
dist Mission received its first convert a little 
later in the same year. The first Protestant 
Church in Korea was organized in Seoul, Sep- 
tember, 1887, and the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper was administered the first time, Christ- 
mas Day of that year, in Mr. Underwood's 
house. Only seven persons gathered about the 
Lord's table at that small but historic service. 
After ten years of patient labor by the mission- 
aries of several denominations, there were still 
only 141 baptized Christians in all Korea. 

The work early found a foothold in Pyeng 
Yang through a few Koreans who had been in- 
structed by the missionaries. By 1887, there 
were several inquirers, and a native helper was 
stationed there to preach to them. Soon after 
the Rev. Samuel A. Moffett arrived in Korea 
in 1889, he went to Pyeng Yang. He found 
appalling moral conditions, for the city was no- 
torious as the wickedest in Korea. The diffi- 
culties were numerous and formidable. A 
faint-hearted man would have been discouraged 
and driven out, but Mr. Moffett took a poor 
little Korean house, the only one available, 
lived among the people, and by patience and 
tact made his way into their confidence. In 
1892, he was joined by the Rev. Graham Lee, 
also a Presbyterian, and by Dr. M. J. Hall, of 
the Methodist Mission. 

One of the notable Korean Christians was a 
man by the name of Kim Chang Sik. Brought 
by a Korean friend to the home of a missionary 



MISSIONARY WORK 283 

in Seoul, he was converted, and in 1894 was sent 
to his own home in Pyeng Yang to aid Dr. 
Hall. But by this time the opposition had 
become violent. Persecution broke out, and Persecution 
Kim was one of the first to be arrested. He 
and other Christians were cruelly beaten, placed 
in stocks, and warned that if they did not give 
up the foreigner's religion they would be pun- 
ished still more severely. The others, in their 
pain and terror, yielded, but Kim remained 
steadfast. He was taken to the death cell, but 
though believing that he would be decapitated 
if he did not recant, he nevertheless exclaimed 
in a spirit worthy of the ancient martyrs : " God 
loves me and has forgiven my sins. How can 
I curse Him! The foreigner is kind and pays 
my honest wages ; why should I forsake him ? " 
Fortunately, orders came from Seoul to release 
the prisoners, and the mangled and half-dead 
Kim went out with the others. His fidelity 
made a profound impression upon all who knew 
him, and people began to say that there must 
be something real in the new religion when a 
man was willing to suffer so much for it. 

The war of 1894 between China and Japan War of 1894 
powerfully influenced the work. As during 
the earlier stages of the Russo-Japanese War, 
Korea became the battle-ground of the contend- 
ing forces. Soon it became evident that the 
decisive battle of the war would be fought in 
the vicinity of Pyeng Yang. The wildest ex- 
citement prevailed. In the crash, much Korean 
property was destroyed, the fields were ravaged, 



284 KOREA 

and many of the unhappy people, caught be- 
tween the upper and the nether millstones, 
suffered from wounds and sickness as well as 
terror. 

Though the situation was known to be full 
of danger, the missionaries heroically remained 
at their posts. At the risk of their own lives, 
they went about among the panic-stricken 
people, binding up the wounds of the injured, 
caring for the sick, burying the dead, and do- 
ing everything in their power to allay terror 
and to urge trust in God. 
Devotion of Then the Koreans realized for the first time 
missionaries ^i^t the American missionaries were the best 
friends they had. Public sentiment began to 
change. An epidemic of cholera in Seoul 
brought out like devotion on the part of the 
missionaries there. They toiled indefatigably 
for the sick and dying, performing offices from 
which the bravest Koreans shrank, and expos- 
ing themselves without stint. Their skilful 
treatment of the sick saved hundreds of lives. 

" All these recoveries made no little stir in the city. 
Proclamations were posted on the walls, telling people 
there was no need for them to die when they might go 
to the Christian hospital and live. People who watched 
missionaries working over the sick night after night said 
to each other : * How these foreigners love us ! Would 
we do as much for one of our own kin as they do for stran- 
gers?' Some men who saw Mr. Underwood hurrying 
along the road in the gray twilight of a summer morning 
remarked : * There goes the Jesus man ; he works all night 
and all day with the sick without resting.' ' Why does 
he do it ? ' said another. ' Because he loves us,' was the 



MISSIONARY WORK 285 

reply. What sweeter reward could be had than that the 
people should see the Lord in our service." 1 

From that time the work made rapid prog- AWonder- 
ress. In the Pyeng Yang field, the develop- fulStor y 
ment was remarkable. The story of the last 
decade is one of the most inspiring chapters in 
the history of Protestant missions in any land. 
The people who had been living in darkness, 
bondage, and superstition, who had seen ghosts 
and evil spirits in every rock and tree, in the 
murmur of the waves and in the roar of the 
thunder, heard the missionaries teach in their 
villages that the power above was not a demon 
trying to injure them, but a loving Father, 
whose heart went out to them as His wander- 
ing children, who had given His only begotten 
Son for their redemption, and who, if they 
turned to Him in repentance and faith, would 
bestow upon them the joy and the dignity of a 
new life. Eagerly the people listened. This 
time the truth sank deep into their hearts, and 
erelong the good news began to spread in all 
directions. As these pages are written, a re- Revival 
vival, never surpassed in all the history of 
missions, is sweeping over Korea. Perhaps it 
is hardly proper to state that it began in the 
early part of 1907, for a revival had been 
almost continuous there for years; but at that 
time it assumed wonderful proportions. The 
Rev. W. L. Swallen gives the following account 
of what occurred at Pyeng Yang : — 

1 Mrs. Underwood, p. 144. 



286 KOREA 

" The entire city was mapped out, and each church 
made responsible for its prescribed territory. Some 
2000 persons have been led to accept Christ as their 
Saviour. The churches are all filled and overflowing, 
and in order to relieve the congestion, the men and 
women are compelled to meet for worship at separate 
hours. 

" Immediately after the city campaign, the Methodist 
Mission's Class for Preachers and Christian Workers 
was held. About one hundred of their best men were 
gathered for a month's study. Here, too, the blessing of 
the Holy Spirit was received and the same agonizing for 
sin was experienced as in the former meetings. These 
men have gone out from this class possessed with a love 
for God and man unknown before. 
Women's "N sooner had this company left the city, than in 

meetings came 550 of the leading women from the country 
churches to attend the Woman's Training Class of the 
Presbyterian Mission, which continued for twelve days. 
Conviction and confessions began almost from the first. 
At times the whole congregation would wail together 
and cry out to God for mercy. When any one would 
become so overcome with grief as to be unable to cease, 
the congregation would break out together in audible 
prayer, after which a song might be sung. If still there 
were those who could not get comfort, then those sainted 
women who had previously gone through with such an 
experience themselves and had gotten peace would go 
through the congregation like angelic messengers, seek- 
ing out such and, putting their arms about them in un- 
mistakable love, speak peace to their agonizing souls. 
With few exceptions, these women went to their homes 
with their hearts filled with a new joy, and a noble 
purpose to live better lives in the future. 

"Again, before these 550 women had reached their 
homes, 75 theological students were gathered from every 
part of Korea to spend three months in study. Daily 
united prayer had been offered by the missionary com- 
munity for some time previous. It was felt that of all 
men these upon whose shoulders the main burden of the 



MISSIONARY WORK 287 

young Korean Church must rest should be Spirit-filled 
men. Indeed the blessing that has actually come upon 
the Korean Christians in general is such as to make it 
next to impossible that any but Spirit-filled men should 
hope to hold the places of authority in the church. 

" From the first, these evening meetings were intense Fervent 
with fervent prayer. Saturday night, the meeting was prayer 
allowed to continue until midnight. The Spirit was 
present in wonderful power, compelling men to reveal 
what lay hidden in their past lives. On Monday and 
Tuesday, regular recitations were out of the question, 
so the whole day and evening were devoted to prayer 
and confession. Under the Spirit's illumination, these 
men felt themselves to be all unclean, unworthy sinners, 
and a cry for mercy went up to God that no words can 
describe. 

" As nearly all had confessed at one time or another, 
the evening was now given to praise and thanksgiving. 
This, too, was a most marvellous meeting. One after 
another and sometimes many together arose and testified, 
until most of the 75 theologues gave joyful testimony to 
the peace received. For three hours, an uninterrupted 
volume of praise and thanksgiving ascended like sweet 
incense to God." 

Surely the people of God in all lands may 
share in the rejoicing over this mighty mani- 
festation of Divine power, especially as it 
shows no sign of abating. Nor is the move- 
ment confined to the central stations where 
there are missionaries. Much might be writ- 
ten of many out-stations where a remarkable 
work has grown up. At Kang Kai, an isolated 
northern city of 10,000 inhabitants, 250 miles 
from Syen Chyun, there has never been a resi- 
dent missionary, only a visiting one at rare 
intervals. " The people come long distances to 



288 KOREA 

meet him ; they crowd the rooms of the inns 
and often stand outside for hours in the snow 
to hear the one message of the year from the 
Lord. From this scanty seed-sowing, there 
are now over 1200 adherents of the Christian 
Church who have thrown away their idols and 
fetiches, have given up the worship of evil 
spirits, are keeping the Sabbath, and often amid 
persecution and earthly loss are following the 
dim light they have seen." 

The reputation of Sorai ought to be as wide 
as Christendom. Think of a place of fifty- 
eight houses, in fifty of which all persons over 
fifteen years of age are Christians ; a com- 
munity in which there is no liquor, no brawl- 
ing, no vice of any kind; where the Sabbath 
is scrupulously kept, and the entire popula- 
tion attends church, Sunday-school, and prayer- 
meeting ! The church is a notable building 
for Korea, almost imposing in comparison with 
the humble homes of the people. 

Two brothers were God's instruments in 
creating this model Christian village. About 
twenty years ago, the elder was converted 
through the Rev. John Ross, during a visit 
in Manchuria. Soon after his return to Korea, 
he met Dr. Underwood, w T ho gladly gave him 
the instruction he was so eager to obtain. 
Then, filled with joy and zeal like Andrew of 
old, "He first findeth his own brother, and 
saith unto him, ' We have found the Mes- 
siah,' and he brought him to Jesus." Re- 
moving to Sorai, these brothers preached the 



MISSIONARY WORK 289 

Gospel with such power and exemplified it 
with such beauty of character that the whole 
village was transformed. No missionary re- 
sides in Sorai, and none is needed, for practi- 
cally the whole community is Christian, and 
Sau Kyung Jo wisely shepherds the flock. I 
know of no more remarkable illustration of the 
inherent vitality and self -propagating power of 
Christianity. 

As we gazed upon the Christian homes clus- 
tering at the foot of the hill, the wide expanse 
of meadow beyond, and farther away but in 
plain view the quiet sea, the clouds which 
had heavily lowered during the day suddenly 
broke, the setting sun burst forth in tender 
glories, and at evening time there was light. 
The sound of a trumpet was heard. Softly 
and yet clearly it echoed among the trees and 
through the village, and soon answering groups 
of white-robed figures were wending their way 
up the hillside to the House of God, where we 
communed long with them as the shadows 
fell and the stars came out. 

Our entire trip through the villages of in- Christian 
terior Korea was a revelation to us. Almost Yllla s e - life 
every night we had a picture in chiaroscuro 
of the spiritual condition of Asia. A hum- 
ble church, whose flickering oil lamps filled 
the interior with a light not strong indeed, 
but yet sufficiently clear to make the room 
bright in contrast with the surrounding dark- 
ness, was filled with believers who were 
rejoicing within the pale of "His marvellous 



290 KOREA 

light." Beyond them, and crowding the doors, 
were many others, not yet wholly in the light, 
but partially illuminated by it, their eager 
faces turned toward the place from which it 
was shining, and where a man was speaking 
of the Light of the World. Behind these were 
still others whom I could not count, standing 
in deeper shadows. Now and then a flare of 
the lamp shot a ray of light into the gloom 
and showed scores of spectators, some indif- 
ferent, some curious, some gravely wondering ; 
and then the darkness would silently enfold 
them again so that only indistinct masses of 
heavier blackness showed where an unnum- 
bered multitude was gathered. As I looked 
upon this scene night after night, I was en- 
couraged by the number of those who had 
come into the light, but I was " burdened for 
those who are standing in the dark." 
Number of But the number of enlightened ones is rapidly 
Christians increasing. Dr. Underwood declares that there 
are now no less than 150,000 Christians in 
Korea, and the movement seems to be only 
beginning. Surely this is a remarkable record 
when we consider that the first missionary did 
not arrive until 1884, and that practically all 
of these converts have developed within the 
last fourteen years. 

The Presbyterians alone now report seven 
stations, 767 out-stations, 78 foreign missionaries, 
792 schools, of which 434 are entirely self-sup- 
porting, six hospitals, 492 native helpers, 15,079 
baptized communicants, and 76,412 catechumens. 



MISSIONARY WORK 291 

The oldest station is, of course, at Seoul. Seoul 
The institutional work includes the John D. 
Wells Training School for Christian Workers, 
founded by the family of the late Rev. Dr. 
Wells, of Brooklyn, New York ; a board- 
ing-school for girls, built by Mr. John H. 
Converse, of Philadelphia, and the Severance 
Hospital, the largest and the best-equipped 
institution of the kind in Korea, erected by 
Mr. Lewis H. Severance, of Cleveland, Ohio. 
There are four churches. On a recent Sunday, 
there were 1500 present at the Yun Mot Kol 
Church. All Korean congregations sit on the 
floor, the men with their hats on, and the men 
and women divided by a partition, the preacher 
standing so that he can see both sexes. When 
the minister wishes to make more room, he calls 
upon the congregation to rise ; then he asks the 
people to move forward and to sit down again. 

The Presbyterian work centering in Pyeng Pyeng Yang 
Yang is one of the most famous mission works 
in the world, from the viewpoint of rapidity of 
growth and of the self-support and self -propa- 
gation of the native church. There are now 
no less than 6089 communicants, 5784 cate- 
chumens, 16,746 Sunday-school scholars, and 
20,414 adherents. I looked with wonder on 
a congregation of 1800 reverent worshippers 
where mission work was not begun till 1894, 
and the wonder increased when I found the 
whole congregation in four sections studying 
the Bible in the Sunday-school, while the 
Wednesday evening prayer-meeting was afc 



292 



KOREA 



1200 People 
at a Prayer- 
meeting 



Comity 



tended by 1200. The city church is the largest 
in Korea, with a membership of 1076 and a 
catechumen roll of 385. The growth of the 
church has been attended with the difficulty 
of providing for the increasing congregation. 
Three other churches have been organized from 
this one, and still, although a gallery providing 
for 200 has been put in, it is filled every Sun- 
day, and at times many are turned away. The 
midweek prayer-meeting is probably the lar- 
gest in the world, the attendance rarely falling 
below 1000 and often rising to 1400. A theo- 
logical seminary has 75 students. 

The Methodists and Presbyterians amicably 
divide the territory and cooperate in the most 
brotherly fashion. The medical and educa- 
tional work is conducted in common. The 
two hospitals, Caroline A. Ladd (Presbyterian) 
and Hall Memorial (Methodist), are operated 
as one under a joint staff of the Presbyterian 
and Methodist physicians, and together they 
treated 17,698 patients last year. The Union 
Academy for boys has 400 students. The boys 
are required to be self-supporting as far as 
possible, and there is an industrial department 
which includes farming, gardening, printing, 
carpentering, blacksmithing, and other trades. 

The education of girls is not yet so well 
developed, but there are several primary schools 
and a union boarding-school. The difficulties 
are greater than with boys, owing to the Korean 
feeling that girls are not worth educating. 
The Christians, however, are quicker to see the 



MISSIONARY WORK 293 

need of education for their girls, and as the 
ideals of the Gospel become known, new am- 
bitions are stirred. 

Taiku Station was opened in October, 1897, Taiku 
by the Rev. and Mrs. James E. Adams, who 
were joined in December by Dr. and Mrs. 
W. O. Johnson. The loneliness and privation 
of life at this inland city were trying, and the 
little mud-walled Korean houses were unhealthy. 
Several times sickness prostrated some members 
of the circle, the physician himself being brought 
to death's door by typhus fever in 1900. But 
the missionaries persisted with unfaltering faith 
and courage. After a time, a cheap hillside 
was bought and residences were erected. Other 
missionaries have joined the original number, a 
hospital has been built, the gift of Miss Mary 
H. Wright, of Philadelphia, and a successful 
work is being pressed in all directions. In 
1902, 177 adults had been baptized. In 1903, 
the number had increased to 477, in 1904 to 780, 
and in 1907 the Christian community in Taiku 
and the outlying villages numbered 6145, and 
formed no less than 84 distinct groups, several of 
which have erected their own chapels. 

Syen Chyun, 100 miles north of Pyeng Yang, syen Chyun 
though only an ordinary town in size, has 
recently sprung into prominence for its remark- 
able missionary work. The station was not 
organized until 1901, but it already reports 102 
out-stations, 4039 communicants, 4667 cate- 
chumens, and 15,348 adherents. 1085 baptized 
adults were received last year. 



294 KOREA 

Fusan At Fusan there are six missionaries, includ- 

ing wives, an excellent hospital, " The Junkin 
Memorial," and an extensive evangelistic work. 
There are 578 communicants, of whom 227 were 
added last year, 530 catechumens, and 2317 
adherents. The stations at Chai Ryong and 
Chong Ju are new, but very promising. A 
special work among the Japanese in Korea has 
recently been inaugurated, the Rev. and Mrs. 
F. S. Curtis having been transferred from Japan 
for this purpose. 

The Methodists, who sent their first mission- 
aries to Korea in 1885, have stations at Seoul, 
Pyeng Yang, Chemulpo, Hai-ju, Kong-ju, 
and Yeng-byen. They report 42 mission- 
aries, including wives and 14 missionaries 
of the Woman's Society, 220 native preachers, 
teachers, and other helpers, 3885 members, 
19,570 probationers, and 16,158 catechumens 
and other adherents, 153 Sunday-schools, 49 
churches and chapels, and yen 27,016 contrib- 
uted by the Koreans. The mission has Bible 
Training School, three high schools, and 103 day 
schools, with 3538 pupils. 

The work at Seoul is extensive. The Woman's 
Hospital is in charge of three devoted women 
physicians. Boarding-schools for both boys 
and girls are housed in large and well-appointed 
brick buildings. The Boys' Boarding-school is 
an institution of great influence. Its Korean 
name is " Pai Chai Hakdang," which may be 
translated, " Hall for the Rearing of Useful 
Men," a name given to it by the King in 1887. 



MISSIONARY WORK 295 

The Methodist Press was founded in 1889. Printing- 
Its original object was to give employment to press 
deserving students in the Boys' School, but it 
soon grew to be an important agency in the 
evangelization of Korea. It does printing not 
only for that denomination, but for other de- 
nominations as well, the latter, of course, pay- 
ing for their work at job rates. 

The First Methodist Church is a large brick First 
edifice, and a counted congregation recently Methodist 
numbered 1100. This church has a night- 
school entirely supported by the church, has 
gained over 1000 in membership during the 
past year, and pays all its own bills. 

The Methodist work centering in Pyeng Yang 
is also very interesting. There are two churches 
in the city enrolling 261 communicants, 602 
probationers, and 1573 adherents. The church 
building in the compound on the hill is a prom- 
inent feature of the city. The medical and 
educational work is in union with the Presby- 
terians, as already indicated. Four country 
circuits are included in the Pyeng Yang dis- 
trict, the total number of members and proba- 
tioners being 4195, besides 3735 adherents. 
The Presiding Elder, the Rev. William A. Noble, 
writes : " The total increase in followers dur- 
ing the year has not been paralleled during the 
history of our work in northern Korea. Our Great 
numbers have doubled. The district now Progress 
records a total following of more than all our 
work in Korea three years ago. . . . The im- 
mediate effect of the revival has been to revolu- 



296 KOBEA 

tionize the character of the church. It has 
given the people at large a different idea of 
what it means to become a Christian. Now 
they are discriminating in judgment. A man 
will take a stand in relation to moral questions 
with intelligence, and commit himself only when 
ready to make a change in his life." 

The Biblical Institute was held in two sections 
last year, one at Seoul, and one at Pyeng Yang. 
At the close of the session for the training of 
lay workers at Pyeng Yang, when the men had 
been asked to consider the claims of God's min- 
istry upon their lives, volunteers were called 
for, and 178 of the finest men in the north vol- 
unteered to give themselves to the ministry. 
Chemulpo The work at Chemulpo is comparatively new. 

It began in 1889 as an out-station of Seoul, with 
a native helper in charge. In 1891 a chapel 
was erected, and in 1892 the Rev. George Heber 
Jones took up his residence, and began to push 
the work with energy and success. There are 
now a church, two schools, and six missionaries, 
including wives. The Chemulpo District in- 
cludes three circuits on the mainland and three 
on 14 islands within a radius of 40 miles of 
the port of Chemulpo. During the past year 
work has been opened in 34 new villages, seven 
churches have been built, and schools estab- 
lished in 12 villages. Two of the circuits have 
doubled the number of their preaching places. 
A village on one circuit is practically Christian, 
having now only one heathen home. Wesley 
Church, Chemulpo, has not only been self -sup- 



MISSIONARY WORK 297 

porting, but has helped several needy churches, 
contributed to the Boys' School, and kept two 
girls in school in Nagasaki, Japan. The three 
other stations are comparatively small as yet, 
bu u they are well located, and afford excellent 
promise. 

The beginning of Methodist woman's work in Work for 
Korea, by Mrs. M. F. Scranton in Seoul, in the Women 
fall of 1884, has already been alluded to. A 
boarding-school was organized, and in spite of 
suspicion and opposition during the earlier years, 
its success was continuous. In 1887, Dr. Meta 
Howard, the first woman physician, arrived in 
Seoul, and in the spring of 1888 the first hospi- 
tal for women was opened. This is about to be 
replaced by the Lillian Harris Memorial Hospi- 
tal. Some years later a dispensary was opened 
at the opposite end of the city. A training 
school for nurses, established by Miss Margaret 
Edmunds in 1903, is proving a valuable aid in 
the medical work. 

In 1898, work was begun in Pyeng Yang by 
Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall. The hospital here 
was burned to the ground in November, 1906, 
and is soon to be replaced by a larger one. Dr. 
Esther Kim Pak, one of the first pupils of the 
boarding-school, and the first Korean woman to 
receive the degree of M.D. in the United States, 
has been associated with Dr. Hall since 1900. 

Methodist woman's work now includes one 
boarding-school, with an enrolment of 104 ; 28 
day schools, three of which are self-supporting, 
with 1200 pupils; 35 Bible women; 10,000 



298 KOREA 

women on the church rolls, and as many more 
waiting for instruction. During 1907, 12,000 
women and children received medical treatment 
in the hospitals and dispensaries. 

Other churches are having a part in this 
great movement, though their work is as yet 
conducted on a smaller scale than that of the 
Presbyterians and Methodists. 

The s. P. G. The Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 
pel (the Church of England) had received a 
suggestion from the Rev. A. C. Shaw, one of its 
missionaries in Japan, as early as 1880, for the 
founding of a mission in Korea. This suggestion 
was reenf orced in 1887 by Bishops Scott, of North 
China, and Bickerstaph, of Japan, who visited 
Korea in that year. The Society did not deem 
it practicable, however, to open work until 
the Rt. Rev. Charles John Corfe, D.D., who 
had been consecrated the first missionary Bishop 
of Korea in Westminster Abbey on All Saints' 
Day, 1889, arrived September 29, 1890, with six 
ordained men and two physicians. Property 
was acquired at Seoul and Chemulpo, and work 
begun. September 30, 1891, the first Anglican 
Church in Korea was dedicated at Chemulpo, 
and on the following Sunday, the first confirma- 
tion was held, "the candidate being a little 
serving-maid of a pious German family." 

Bishop The resignation of Bishop Corfe was followed 

by the election of Bishop H. B. Turner in 1905. 
Within the last two years, the work has grown 
more rapidly. Four points are now occupied. 
Chemulpo has a well-equipped hospital, under 



Turner 



MISSIONARY WORK 299 

the care of Dr. Weir, assisted by several nurses, 
though there is no resident clergyman. Seoul, 
which is the residence of the bishop, has a church 
under the care of the Rev. W. N. Gurney, who, 
however, reports to the Society that the field is 
a very difficult one, and that there is little to 
show for fifteen years of occupation. The 
Society reports little evangelistic work in either 
Seoul or Chemulpo. Sou-won, a walled town 
40 miles south of Seoul, was opened as a station 
in 1905, and the work has started encourag- 
ingly, several hundred inquirers and catechu- 
mens having already been enrolled, and the 
Sunday congregations numbering about 300 
worshippers. The largest work of the Society 
in Korea is on Kanghwa, an island off the west 
coast, about the size of the Isle of Wight. 
There are missionaries at two towns, Kanghwa 
City and On Sou Tong, and the Society has a 
high school, several day schools, and a large 
central church. 

In September, 1906, the Rev. S. H. Cart- 
wright, of the Japan Mission, began a special 
work among the Japanese in Korea, making 
Seoul his headquarters. The Society now has 
in Korea seven clergymen, two lay missionaries, 
and three single women. 

The Southern Presbyterian Mission was Southern 
established in 1892, when six missionaries, Pres ^. te ". 
arrived. They began their work in Seoul, but 
later removed to the two Chel-la provinces in 
the southwestern part of Korea. Here they 
are now maintaining three effective stations. 



300 KOREA 

Chun-ju, a walled city of 25,000 people, is the 
capital of North Chel-la province and the 
market town of one of the most fertile and 
thickly populated rice plains of Korea. The 
natives have a saying which indicates their 
estimation of it : " If you can't go to see Seoul, 
see Chun-ju." The mission station here was 
opened in 1896. 

Kun-san, also opened as a station in 1896, is 
the treaty port at the mouth of the Chang-po 
River, 150 miles south of Chemulpo. There 
are many villages in the adjacent region. 

Mokpo Mokpo and Kwang-ju are usually associated 

as one station. The work was begun in 1898 
at the former place. But although Mokpo is a 
treaty port with a fine harbor, it has " an un- 
fortunate scarcity of two things essential to 
a prosperous mission station, viz. fresh water 
and Koreans." So the main part of the station 
has been transferred to Kwang-ju, a city of 
10,000 inhabitants, 60 miles in the interior, and 
the capital of South Chel-la province. 

Chun-ju The Chun-ju and Kun-san station fields each 

have an estimated population of 500,000, while 
Mokpo-Kwang-ju has 1,000,000. The Southern 
Presbyterians are therefore seeking to reach 
two millions of the population of Korea. There 
are 27 missionaries, including wives, all dis- 
tributed among the three stations mentioned, 
except one family in Seoul, and 75 native 
helpers. No organized churches are reported, 
but work is regularly conducted at 140 dif- 
ferent places ; 991 communicants are enrolled, 



MISSIONARY WORK 301 

besides 8410 adherents ; 22 Sunday-schools 
have a membership of 1390. There are no 
boarding or high schools, but there are 18 day- 
schools with 381 pupils. Sixteen of the schools 
are entirely self-supporting. Yen 4176 were 
raised on the field, and 12,234 patients were 
treated by the physicians of the mission at the 
Kun-san hospital and the Chun-ju and Mokpo 
dispensaries. 

The Southern Methodist Church also has an 
excellent work in Korea, though it is not as 
large as that of the Northern Methodists. It 
originated in 1895, when Bishop E. R. Hendrix 
and the Rev. C. F. Reed visited Korea. The 
mission was not formally opened until the next 
year, but from that time the work has been 
vigorously prosecuted from three strategic cen- 
tres, Seoul, Wonsan, and Song-do. 

A fine illustration of comity occurred at Won- illustration 
san in 1901. The Northern Methodists, who of Comity 
had opened a station there in 1892, transferred 
it to their Southern brethren, as the latter had 
been in the field first and it was deemed unnec- 
essary for both churches to occupy it. As these 
pages are written, word comes that the Board 
has secured a tract of 72 acres for a new com- 
pound at Song-do and that it will erect build- 
ings for academic and industrial schools, a hos- 
pital, and five residences, the total cost to be 
$35,000. This will give a fine equipment at 
this important centre. 

All together the Southern Methodists have 15 
missionaries, including seven wives, 40 native 



302 



KOREA 



Results 



Australian 
work 



Canadian 
Presby- 
terians 



workers, one college (Song-do), four day- 
schools, and one dispensary (Wonsan). The 
dispensary treated last year 4056 patients. 
The number of converts increased from 759 in 
1905 to 1227 in 1906, a net gain of nearly sixty- 
two per cent, besides 1694 probationers who were 
receiving instruction preparatory to church 
membership. "The people are turning to 
Christ as I have never seen in any field," writes 
Bishop Candler. 

Australian Presbyterian work centres in Fusan. 
It was founded in 1889 by the Rev. John H. Da- 
vies and his sister. Other missionaries followed 
them, and a considerable work has developed, 
though practically all of it is conducted from 
this port. There is not a large local popula- 
tion, but the country districts are thickly settled. 
The population of the province is estimated at 
about 750,000. The outlying field has been 
happily divided with the American Presbyteri- 
ans, the latter taking the region north and west 
of Fusan and the Australians the region along 
the east coast. Including both missions, organ- 
ized work is conducted in fourteen counties of 
the thirty in the province. 

The Canadian Presbyterians were first inter- 
ested in Korea by the heroic and devoted W 
J. McKenzie, who was stirred by reading Dr. 
Griffis's " Korea, the Hermit Nation," in 1888, 
and who in 1893 went to Korea under the sup- 
port of his university. His sad death two years 
later, in the delirium of typhoid fever, touched 
all hearts. It was not until 1897 that the Gen- 



MISSIONARY WORK 303 

eral Assembly felt that the way was clear to 
found a mission, and September 8 of the follow- 
ing year three missionaries reached Seoul. After 
consultation with the Council of Missions, the 
province of Ham Gyong on the northeast coast 
was agreed upon as the field of the Canadian 
Presbyterians. Central stations are now main- 
tained at Wonsan, Han-heung, and Song-chen, 
while evangelistic work is regularly conducted 
at 47 places. There are 14 missionaries, in- 
cluding wives, 11 schools, three organized 
churches, 644 communicants, besides 552 per- 
sons under instruction. 

The Plymouth Brethren have a family doing other 
itinerating evangelistic work from Seoul. A Workers 
Young Men's Christian Association was estab- 
lished in 1900 in Seoul, and is doing excellent 
work under the leadership of an American sec- 
retary, Mr. Philip L. Gillett. The British and 
Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible So- 
ciety, and the National Bible Society of Scot- 
land unite in the support of the work in Korea, 
the Scotch Society paying one-fifth the cost of 
translations and the other Societies two-fifths 
each. 

An undenominational Home for Destitute 
Children, outside the wall at Seoul, is main- 
tained by a local board of directors, chiefly 
missionaries, and cares lovingly for many little 
ones. The property was secured by Dr. Under- 
wood, and the resident matron is Miss Perry, 
formerly a missionary of the Australian Pres- 
byterian Church. 



304 KOBEA 

Unity The spirit of unity which pervades the mis- 

w^i^r sionaries of most of the churches is a delightful 
feature of the work. The Northern, Southern, 
Canadian, and Australian Presbyterians early 
associated themselves in the development of a 
union Presbyterian Church in Korea. Up to 
1907 the governing body was the Presbyterian 
Council, which was composed of representatives 
of all the Presbyterian missions. In that year, 
however, an independent Presbyterian Church 
was formally constituted with the approval of 
the respective General Assemblies of the home 
churches. 

Nor did union stop with Presbyterians. An 
Evangelical Council of Missions was organized 
in 1904, which included the four Presbyterian 
bodies mentioned above and the Northern and 
Southern Methodists. This Council meets an- 
nually, and exerts large influence in unifying 
the work. One of its beneficent results is the 
readjustment of boundary lines, so as to pre- 
vent overlapping of fields and churches. The 
latest instance of this was the amicable agree- 
ment regarding division of territory between 
the Northern Presbyterians and Southern Pres- 
byterians in the fall of 1907. 
Training Training classes for Christian workers have 

Classes come to be a characteristic feature of mission 

work in Korea. The classes usually last from 
ten to fourteen days and are held at the stations, 
though smaller ones led by native helpers are 
conducted at some of the out-stations. Pyeng 
Yang has become famous for its large classes, 



MISSIONARY WORK 305 

the number attending often exceeding 1000. 
About 500 Korean workers cooperated with 
the missionaries in holding classes last year at 
250 different places in northern Korea, the at- 
tendance being over 12,000. It is not uncom- 
mon for Koreans to walk more than a hundred 
miles, bringing their own food with them, to 
attend these classes, and some have journeyed 
as far as 300 miles. Then these eager Chris- 
tians go back to do personal evangelistic work 
in their villages. There is something inspiring 
in the contemplation of such devotion, and it 
accounts in no small measure for the splendid 
success of the missionary movement in Korea. 

The missionaries find results multiplying with Overtaxed 
such rapidity that they are overworked in the Workers 
effort to organize and superintend them. Every 
missionary assigned to evangelistic work is vir- 
tually a bishop of an extensive diocese, and is 
obliged to toil and travel almost incessantly in 
order to keep any kind of oversight of his nu- 
merous and scattered out-stations. Over 15,000 
children are attending mission schools, but prac- 
tically all of them are from Christian homes, 
not only because the missionaries feel that this 
is a wise policy, but because such children are 
so numerous that they tax the school facilities 
which can be provided. Hardly any attempt 
has been made to recruit pupils from the non- 
Christian population. 

The following causes may be indicated to 
account for the rapid spread of the Gospel in 
Korea : — 



306 KOREA 

Causes for First : Koreans are naturally more docile and 

Success affectionate than Chinese and Japanese, so that 

it is easier to make an impression on them. 

Second : Politically small and weak in com- 
parison with the mighty Powers about them, 
the Koreans have become accustomed to being 
led from the outside. There are, therefore, less 
national pride and prejudice to be overcome 
than in China and Japan. 

Third : While ancestral and demon worship 
are formidable obstacles, there is no powerful 
State religion, as in most other non-Christian 
lands. 

Fourth : Poverty, oppression, and distress 
have begotten a longing for relief and a hope 
that the missionary can secure it for them. 

Fifth : The fidelity and sympathy which the 
missionaries manifested during the Chino- Japan- 
ese and Russo-Japanese wars. 

Sixth : The favor of the court. When, after 
the murder of the Queen, the terrified Emperor 
expected his own assassination, he found coun- 
sel and moral support in three missionaries. 
He frequently expressed his appreciation of 
their fidelity in his hour of peril. His favor 
meant no spiritual help, but the imperial smile 
counts for much in an Oriental country. 

These conditions created a state of receptivity 
in the public mind, and unquestionably in them 
the Holy Spirit prepared the soil for the plant- 
ing of the Gospel seed. As compared with 
China, Korea was like a western prairie, ready 
for the plough of the husbandman ; while the 



MISSIONARY WORK 307 

vaster, prouder, more stubborn, phlegmatic, and 
self-satisfied population of the Celestial Empire 
was like the densely forested land of the East- 
ern seaboard, on which weary years of toil had 
to be spent in hewing down the wilderness, 
uprooting gigantic stumps, and gathering out 
the stones. Comparisons are, therefore, unfair. 
Conditions independent of the missionary have 
made the task of evangelization less difficult in 
one field than in the other. 

And yet it would be wrong to give the im- Obstacles 
pression that there are no obstacles to be en- 
countered in Korea. It is not easy to convert 
any heathen nation. Indolence, superstition, 
dirt, the apathy of despair, the jealousy of the 
literary class, the demoralizing example of 
officials, the antagonism of a powerful Roman 
Catholic Church, — all these heavily reenf orce 
the ever-present influences of the world, the 
flesh, and the devil. The human heart is not 
any more prone to spiritual things in Korea 
than elsewhere. 

The special credit of the missionaries is that 
they have been wise and faithful in taking ad- 
vantage of the peculiar conditions of the land. 
Coming, in the providence of God, in "the 
fulness of the time," they discerned the signifi- 
cance of the hour. It was not necessary to be- 
gin with schools, as in some Moslem lands. 
Korea was ready for the direct preaching of the 
Gospel, and to that preaching the missionaries 
gave themselves with unceasing zeal. There- 
fore emphasis as a cause should be placed on : — 



308 



KOREA 



Self-support Seventh : Insistence by the missionaries, from 
the first, on the duty of self-support and self- 
propagation. As soon as converts appeared, 
they were required to give according to their 
ability and to be messengers of Christ to their 
own people without pay from the foreigner. 
They gladly obeyed. The Koreans now sup- 
port a large majority of their native leaders, 
churches, and day-schools. They contribute as 
much per capita in amount as Americans give 
to foreign missions, and in effect they give 
many times more, for an American believer is 
far better off than these poverty-stricken Ori- 
entals. They preach as willingly as they give, 
first scores and then hundreds and now tens 
of thousands of believers joyfully proclaiming 
Christ to their neighbors and friends. Indeed, 
the chief work of direct evangelization is now 
ardently clone by the Koreans themselves. Not 
only the appointed leaders but the Christians 
generally seek earnestly for souls. Willingness 
to try to lead others to Christ is deemed a test 
of fitness for church membership. Thus the 
Korean churches are to a remarkable degree 
working evangelistic bodies. 

If any one feature of the Korean method 
needs to be heralded as an example to Chris- 
tians both at home and abroad, it is this — the 
duty and privilege of the individual disciple to 
witness for Christ without depending upon his 
pastor to do it for him and without expectation 
of financial reward, but living and teaching the 
Gospel in the sphere of life in which he was 



Koreans 

our 

Example 



MISSIONARY WORK 309 

before, and in the occupation which he already 
followed. And God has wonderfully blessed 
the ministry of His servants. " With great 
power give they witness of the resurrection of the 
Lord Jesus, and great grace is upon them all ! " 

I asked the leaders of the Korean Christians What 
in several conferences, " What is it in Chris- a PP eals t0 
tianity that particularly appeals to the Korean 
mind ? " The answers naturally varied, but 
the ones most frequently recurring were, " sal- 
vation," " joy." The poor Koreans were living 
in wretchedness and despair, oppressed, poverty- 
stricken, literally "having no hope and with- 
out God in the world," knowing nothing of 
anything better, but knowing well their own 
bitterness and sorrow. Suddenly, they heard 
the clear, sweet invitation of the Gospel, tell- 
ing them of pardon, deliverance, and peace. 
Eagerly and trustfully as children they came 
and found rest for their souls. Nowhere else 
in the world to-day is there a more marked 
illustration of the preparation of the soil by 
the Holy Spirit, the inherent vitality of the 
truth, the joy of the believer in Christ and the 
value of personal work for souls. Many a time, 
as I studied the movement, it seemed to me 
that the Son of Man was again walking upon 
earth and calling to lowly men, " Follow me," 
and that again men were " straightway " leaving 
all and following Him. As I sat in the lowly 
chapels and communed with them, I saw how 
the Gospel had enlightened their hearts and 
how their once joyless lives now centred in 



310 



KOREA 



Our First 
* Meeting 



Korean 
Song 



the Church of God which gave them their only 
light and peace. 

Our first meeting with the Korean Christians 
in Fusan will not soon be forgotten. After a 
felicitous address of welcome by one of the Ko- 
reans, a hundred voices rose in a song of praise. 
Such congregational singing ! It was so hearty 
and yet so truly worshipful that it was a physi- 
cal and spiritual tonic. But not a line could I 
understand, till suddenly I caught the words, 
" Jesus, Hallelujah." There being no Korean 
equivalents for them, the missionaries had 
taught the people to use the terms so familiar 
to us. We could have had no more inspiring 
theme, and so we preached on the meaning of 
" Jesus, Hailelujah." 

Our experience in Fusan was repeated many 
times in other places. A stranger in a strange 
land enters a room filled with strange people, 
who greet him in a strange tongue and then 
begin to sing a strange tune. The voices were 
not always melodious nor did they always keep 
the key. But the singing plainly voiced the 
aspirations of a fervent and genuine spiritual 
experience. The Koreans sing as they pray, 
with all their hearts. Unfamiliar as the lan- 
guage is, the visitor is thrilled by the exultant 
ring of a living, joyous faith. 

I have since journeyed far and have seen 
many places and peoples. But there still lives 
to my vision the humble chapels on those Ko- 
rean hills, with worshipping Koreans sitting, 
Oriental fashion, on the floor. I can see their 



MISSIONARY WORK 311 

faces light up as I spoke to them of Jesus as 
our revelation of the love of God, Jesus as our 
Saviour from sin, Jesus as our Friend and King, 
Jesus as the Giver of such peace and joy that 
there is no word so appropriate for the true 
disciples as " Hallelujah." Even as I write, I 
seem to hear the unison of those eager voices 
as, in glad response to my closing request, they 
joined me in repeating the words, " Jesus, 
Hallelujah," and then with the reverent peti- 
tion of their leader as he prayed for us all, 
while the white-robed worshippers bowed with 
their faces to the floor. 

A visit to Korea is a tonic to faith. As one A Tonic to 
journeys through the country, facing crowds of Faith 
Christians from Fusan to Pyeng Yang, it is 
difficult to realize that Protestant missions in 
Korea date only from 1884, and that the great 
host of communicants and adherents in the 
Pyeng Yang field alone began with the baptism 
of a handful of men in January, 1894. "Is 
it genuinely spiritual ? " " Will it be perma- 
nent ? " some are asking. Well, a willingness 
to support their own work without dependence 
upon the foreigner's money, an eagerness to 
extend the Gospel to their countrymen, a per- 
sistence in Christian fidelity when left without 
missionary supervision, a patient endurance of 
persecution, an extraordinary growth which, 
after fourteen years, shows no sign of abating, 
but on the contrary is becoming more and more 
extraordinary, — these are surely encouraging 
indications of genuineness and stability. 



312 KOREA 

An Mr. John R. Mott, who visited Korea in 

nS 6112 ^ 1907 ' declares that tt bids fair t0 be the first 
of the non- Christian lands to be evangelized; 
and Mr. William T. Ellis, the newspaper cor- 
respondent, wrote at the close of his journey : — > 

" Cannot you say something or do something to make 
the Church in America realize that here in Korea just 
now is the Christian opportunity of centuries? This 
situation is extraordinary and amazing. The whole 
country is fruit ripe for the picking. The Koreans 
are ready to turn to the Living God. If the Christian 
Church has any conception of strategy and appreciation 
of an opportunity, and any sense of relative values, she 
will act at once — not next year, but now ! " 



HELPS FOR LEADERS 

On Chapters V, VI, and VII 

SIAM 
Lesson Aim : 

To give a general view of the missionary environment 
and the problem of reaching diverse races with the one 
Gospel. 

Scripture Lesson : 

Mark 16 : 15-20 ; Ephes. 5 : 8-21. 

Suggestive Questions : 

1. What is the area and population of Siam as com- 
pared with Xew England? 

2. What commercial products are exported to Europe 
and America ? 

3. Make a paper mode] of a Siamese house. 

4. In what languages is the Bible found at the Bible 
depot in Bangkok ? 

5. Describe the religion of Siam before the advent of 
Buddhism. 

6. Mention some superstitions prevalent to-day. 

7. What is the total Moslem population of Siam ? 

8. What effect has gambling, the characteristic vice 
of Siam, had upon the character of the people ? 

9. Sketch the life of Gautama Buddha. 

10. Make a table of special difficulties and special en- 
couragements in this field. 

Bibliography : 

Campbell, J. G. D., — Siam in the Twentieth Century. 
Carter, A. Cecil, M.A., — Kingdom of Siam. 

313 



314 HELPS FOB LEA DEBS 

Curtis, Lillian Johnson, — The Laos of North Siam. 

Fleeson, Katherine Neville, — Laos Folk-Lore of 
Farther India. 

Hallett, H. S., — A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in 
the Shan States. 

Siam and Laos as Seen by our American Missionaries. 



BURMA 
Lesson Aim : 

To give a general view of the land, the people, their 
rulers, and their religion in relation to missions ; or what 
Buddhism did for Burma and what Christianity is doing 
now for this country. 

Scripture Lesson : 

Isa. 55 ; Matt. 13 : 1-9. 

Suggestive Questions : 

1. Indicate by color on an outline map of Asia the 
extent of British rule and the strategic importance of 
Burma. 

2. What is the daily life of a mendicant ? 

3. When did Buddhism enter Burma? 

4. What teachings of the Gospel are special stum- 
bling-blocks to the sincere Buddhist ? 

5. Write a review of Edwin Arnold's "Light of 
Asia." 

6. Describe the " Wheel of Life." (See Rhys Davids's 
" Buddhism.") 

7. Write a character sketch of Dr. Judson. 

8. Of Ko Tha Byu. 

9. What are the present missionary problems? 

10. Show the possibility of completing the work of 
evangelization in Burma in terms of men and money. 



HELPS FOR LEADERS 315 

Bibliography : 

Cochrane, Henry Park, — Among the Burmans. 

Curtis, William Eleroy, — Egypt, Burma and British 
Malaysia. 

Griggs, W. C, — Odds and Ends from Pagoda 
Land. 

Judson, Edward, — Life of Adoniram Judson. 

Willson, A. M., — Lives of Mrs. Ann H. Judson, Sarah 
B. Judson, and Mrs. Emily C. Judson. 

Smith, Julius, — Ten Years in Burma. 

Brockett, L. P., — Story of the Karen Mission in Bassein. 



KOREA 
Lesson Aim : 

To show the possibility of evangelizing a land in one 
generation. The power of a supernatural Gospel. 

Scripture Lesson : 
Acts 2 : 1-5 ; 43-47. 

Suggestive Questions : 

1. Why called the Hermit Nation? 

2. What is demon-worship? Shamanism? (Mrs. 
Bishop's " Korea and her Neighbors.") 

3. Describe Korean marriage customs. 

4. Which of Korea's neighbors has had the largest 
influence on her history? 

5. Discussion whether Japanese rule has been of 
benefit to Korea. 

6. Compare the Pyeng Yang revival with that in 
Wales as to character and results. 

7. What Christian literature is there for Koreans in 
their own language? 

8. What are the dangers of too rapid evangelization 
in Korea? 



316 HELPS FOB LEADEBS 

9. What place do women occupy in the Korean 
church ? 

10. Show the location of every station and preaching 
place on the map of Korea. 

Bibliography : 

Bishop, Mrs. Isabella Bird, — Korea and her Neighbors. 

Gale, James S., D.D., — Korean Sketches. 

Gale, James S., D.D., — The Vanguard. 

Griffis, Rev. William Elliott, — Corea: The Hermit 
Nation. 

Hulbert, H. B., — The Passing of Korea. 

Underwood, L. H., — Fifteen Years among the Top- 
knots. 

Underwood, Horace G., — The Call of Korea. 

Jones, G. H., — Korea : The Land, People, and Customs. 



GENERAL INDEX 



Abbott, Rev. E. L., 244. 

Abdul Hamid, 8. 

Abeel, Rev. David, 182. 

Abraham, 1. 

Abu Hanifa, 41. 

Adams, Rev. James E., 293. 

Adamson, Dr. H., 185. 

Aden, 95. 

Afghanistan, 7, 59; popula- 
tion of, 124. 

Africa, 3, 7, 118; Islam in, 3; 
Moslems in, 57; West, 52, 
118 ; Central, 72, 96 ; North, 
74, 77, 85 ; Xorth, spread of 
Islam in, 85 ; Mohammedan 
population of, 114. 

Ahreyah Mettai, 206. 

Algeciras Conference, 60. 

Algeria, 88. 

Al-Ghazali, 48. 

Algiers, 8, 142. 

Allah, 14, 41, 46. 

Allen, Dr. H. N., 278. 

Alms, legal, 27. 

American Baptist Missionary 
Union, 184, 224; discour- 
agements of, 184; closing 
of mission of, 185; results 
of work of, in Siam, 185. 

American Bible Societv, 194, 
303. 

American Board, 92. 

American Missionary Associa- 
tion, 183. 

Amulets, 62. 

Animists, 224, 

Antichrist, 21. 

Appenzeller, Rev. H. G., 280. 



Arabia, 4, 7, 27, 54 ; cradle of 
Islam, 94; population of, 
95, 126; neglected, 126. 

Arabian Mission, Reformed 
Church in America, 97, 126. 

Arabic, 6, 58, 101 ; sacred 
language of Moslems, 6. 

Arabs, 30, 43. 

Armstrong, Rev. W. F., 250. 

Arrakan, 222. 

Ashmore, William, 186. 

Asia : Moslems in, 4 ; unoc- 
cupied fields of, 122. 

Asia Minor, 4, 8. 

Assam, 222. 

Australian Baptist Mission, 
101. 

Ava, 240. 

Ayuthia, ancient capital of 
Siam, 176. 

Bab, the, 98. 

Bagdad, 126. 

Bahrein, 63, 97. 

Baluchistan, 8 ; Moslem popu- 
lation of, 125. 

Bangkok, 160, 174; mission 
institutions in, 193. 

Baptists, American, in Burma, 
238. 

Barrett, Hon. John, 203. 

Bassein, 221. 

Beach, Professor, 116. 

Bedouin, 31. 

Beecher, Rev. E. H., 244. 

Behaism, 98. 

Beit Allah, 3. 

Bengal, 5. 



317 



318 



INDEX 



Bennett, Mrs. Jessie Vail, 98. 

Bhamo, 221. 

Bible, 25, 199; translations 
of, 6, 238. 

Binney, Rev. Dr. J. G., 251. 

Bishop, Mrs. Isabella Bird, 38. 

Bixby, Rev. Moses H., 247. 

Black Stone, 1, 3. 

Blyden, Dr., 37. 

Boardman, Mrs. Sarah Hall, 
242. 

Bokhara, Moslem population 
of, 127. 

Boon Itt, Rev., 194. 

Bradley, Dr. Daniel B., 183. 

Briggs, Dr. and Mrs. W. A., 
198. 

British and Foreign Bible 
Society, 224, 303. 

British rule, 8, 58, 180, 223. 

Bronson, Rev. Dr. Dillon, 227. 

Brooke, Sir James, 188. 

Bruce, Rev. Robert, D.D., 99. 

Buddha, 175. 

Buddhism, state religion of 
Siam, 202, 246. 

Buddhist, first, to accept 
Christ, 239. 

Bugia, 78. 

Burckhardt, 51. 

Burma : area of, 211 ; climate 
of, 211 ; physical features 
of, 211; country without 
caste, 213 ; population of, 
213 ; government of, 221 ; 
Upper, annexation of, 223 ; 
religions of, 224 ; progress 
of missions in, 229 ; medical 
missions in, 252 ; a hopeful 
field, 255. 

Burmans : characteristics of, 
213 ; custom law of life, 
214 ; vices of, 215 ; work 
among, difficult, 246. 

Burton, 45. 

Bush, Rev. and Mrs. Stephen, 
187. 

Busrah, 97. 



Cairo, literary capital of Islam, 

90. 
Cairo Conference, 115. 
Cairo University, 56. 
Cambodia, 159. 
Canton, 166, 182. 
Carey, 72. 

Carpenter, Rev. C. H., 252. 
Carson, Rev. A. E., 248. 
Cartwright, Rev. S. H., 299. 
Celebes, 4. 
Chard, Rev. and Mrs. C. H., 

231. 
Chieng Hoong, 165. 
Chieng Mai, 160, 168 ; mission 

work at, 199. 
Chieng Rai, 177. 
China, 7, 72; Moslems in, 5, 

131 ; Moslem population 

of, 129. 
China Inland Mission, 225. 
Chinese : strongest element in 

Siam, 166 ; in Burma, 

218. 
Chins : demon-worshippers, 

218; converts among, 248. 
Choi Chei Ou, 268. 
Christianity, 37, 74; early, in 

Arabia, 95. 
Christians : in Burma, 224 ; 

persecution of, in Korea, 

283 ; number of, in Korea, 

290. 
Chubbuck, Emily, 242. 
Chun-ju, 300. 
Church Missionary Society, 

90. 
Clarke, James Freeman, 14. 
Cockey, Rev. T. A., 229. 
Colbeck, Rev. James A., 230. 
Colman, Mr. and Mrs., 239. 
Commissioners, of the King, 

179. 
Confucianism, 269. 
Congo Free State, 3. 
Congregational Mission : trials 

of, 182 ; withdrawal of, to 

China, 182. 



INDEX 



319 



Constantinople, political capi- 
tal of Mohammedan world, 
90. 

Converts : from Islam, 97, 
105; in Siam, 200. 

Corfe, Rt. Rev. Charles John, 
D.D., 298. 

Creed : confession of, 24 ; 
use a strength to Islam, 
25. 

Crofton, Rev. H. W., 230. 

Curtis, Rev. and Mrs. F. S., 
294. 

Cushing, Rev. and Mrs. J. N., 
247. 

Danish Evangelical Church, 

96. 
Darrow, Rev. and Mrs. A. C, 

247. 
Davenport, Mr. and Mrs., 184. 
Dean, Dr., 160. 
Dean, Rev. William, 184. 
Demon- worshippers, 218. 
Denman, Dr. and Mrs. C. H., 

198. 
Denmark, 171. 
Divorce, 48. 
Dodd, Mr. and Mrs. W. C, 

198. 
Dunlap, Dr., 201. 

East India Company, 221. 

East Indians, 219. 

Ecumenical Conference, Cairo, 
91. 

Edmunds, Miss Margaret, 297. 

Egypt, 43, 51 ; Moslem popu- 
lation of, 89. 

El Azhar, Mohammedan Uni- 
versity of, 56. 

Ellers, Miss Annie, 281. 

Ellis, William T., 312. 

Emperor of Korea, 271. 

England, 171. 

Europe, 4. 

Evangelistic Lutheran Mission 
of Leipzig, 224. 



Fasting, month of, 26. 
Fitzgerald, Bishop, 227. 
Foochow, 166. 

Foote, General Lucius H., 278. 
Free Church of Scotland, 96. 
French, Bishop, 75, 96. 
French Sudan, 4. 
Fusan, 294, 302. 

Geis, Rev. George J., 249. 

Germany, 159. 

Glenn, Dr. William, 99. 

Gobat, Samuel, 90. 

God : books of, 17 ; Moslem 

idea of, 14; Mohammed's 

idea of, 56. 
Goddard, Josiah, 186. 
Gospel, causes for rapid spread 

of, in Korea, 306. 
Goucher, Rev. John F., 280. 
Gurney, Rev. W. N., 299. 
GutzlafT, Dr., 181. 

Haas, Frederick, 99. 

Hadramaut, 126. 

Hagar, 1. 

Hague, International Confer- 
ence, 272. 

Hainan, 166. 

Haka, 248. 

Hall, Dr. M. J., 282. 

Hall, Dr. Rosetta Sherwood, 
297. 

Han-heung, 303. 

Harem, evils of, 46. 

Haswell, Rev. J. M., 247. 

Hausa-land, 119. 

Hegira, 10, 130. 

Hejaz, 62, 126. 

Hell, Moslem, 23. 

Hemenway, 182. 

Henzada, 246. 

Heron, Dr. J. W., 279. 

Hinduism, 44. 

Hindus, 224. 

Hodeidah, 126. 

Horton, Miss Lillias, 281. 

House, Dr. Samuel R., 186. 



320 



INDEX 



Howard, Dr. Meta, 297. 

Hsipaw, 247. 

Humphrey, Chaplain W. T., 

229. 
Hurgronje, Dr. C. Snouck, 54. 

Illiteracy of Islam, 57. 

India, 8, 51, 113; Moslem 
population of, 5 ; work for 
Moslems in, 100. 

Indies, Dutch East, Moslems 
in, 102. 

International Student Federa- 
tion, 266. 

Irrawaddy, 211. 

Islam : character and con- 
quests of, 1 ; world-wide re- 
ligion, 2, 10; present num- 
bers and distribution of, 3 ; 
literary languages of, 7 ; 
explanation of spread of, 10 ; 
aggressive religion, 11 ; re- 
ligion without caste, 12 ; 
doctrine of angels, 15; 
spirit world, 15 ; Day of 
Judgment, 22 ; philosophy 
of, 23 ; predestination, 23 ; 
doctrine of fatalism, 24 ; 
religion without hope, 28 ; 
social evils of, 37 ; low 
ethical standard of, 39 ; 
lack of truth in, 40; ethics 
of, 40 ; sensuality of, 44 ; 
illiteracy of, 57 ; traditions 
of, 60 ; attitude toward 
Christianity, 102 ; strong- 
hold of, 115; present peril 
of, 118; early entrance into 
China, 130 ; peril of, not 
cause for discouragement, 
139 ; disintegration of, 140 ; 
in Africa, 4 ; in Asia, 4 ; in 
China, 5 ; in India, 5 ; in 
the Philippines, 5 ; in Rus- 
sia, 5 ; in Turkey, 59 ; in 
Arabia, 94; in Malaysia, 
103. 

Ito, Marquis, 274. 



Jains, 224. 

Japan, 159; attitude toward 
Korea, 273. 

Java, 103; converts in, 106. 

Jessup, Dr., 72. 

Jesus Christ, 20, 64, 74 ; Mos- 
lem belief concerning, 20; 
only hope for Moslems, 64; 
regarded as second Buddha, 
206. 

Jews, 53, 224; societies for 
the conversion of, 73. 

Jinn (genii), 15; belief in, uni- 
versal, 16. 

Johnson, Dr. W. O., 293. 

Jones, Rev. and Mrs. John T., 
184. 

Jones, Rev. George Heber, 
296. 

Judson, Adoniram, 238; im- 
prisonment of, 240; .hero- 
ism of, 241. 

Judson, Mrs. Ann Hasseltine, 
181, 242. 

Kaaba, 1, 63. 

Kachins, 249 ; demon- wor- 
shippers, 218. 

Kamil Abd El Messiah, 97. 

Kansu, 5, 131. 

Karens, 216 ; tribes of, 216 ; 
work among the, 231. 

Keith Falconer, Ion, 95. 

Keith Falconer Mission, 126. 

Ke Kan, 168. 

Keller, 74. 

Kerbela, 45. 

Khadijah, 50. 

Kim Chang Sik, 282. 

Kincaid, Dr., 249. 

King, Hon. Hamilton, quoted, 
203. 

King Mongkut, 178; policy of, 
result of missionary influ- 
ence, 183. 

King of Siam, absolute mon- 
arch, 179 ; enlightened pol- 
icy of, 180. 



INDEX 



321 



Knight, Bishop A. M., 237. 

Koran, 13, 40, 44, 55; inter- 
linear translations of, 6 ; 
Arabic, sealed book to most 
Moslems, 6 ; translation of, 
not permitted in China, 7 ; 
uncreated and eternal, 17 ; 
unintelligible without com- 
mentary, 18 ; defects of 
teaching, 19 ; inferior to 
sacred books of other na- 
tions, 19. 

Korat, 176. 

Korea : area of, 259 ; physical 
features of, 259 ; population 
of, 261 ; language in, 262 ; 
lack of sanitation in, 263 ; 
religions of, 269 ; govern- 
ment of, 271 ; period of 
reconstruction in, 275 ; re- 
vival in, 285; a tonic to 
faith, 311. 

Koreans : character of, 262 ; 
peculiar customs of, 265. 

Ko San Ye Movement, 245. 

Ko Tha Byu, first Karen con- 
vert, 243. 

Kumm, Dr. Karl, 116. 

Kwallondong, 261, 

Lakawn, 177 ; mission work 
at, 199. 

Laos : number of, in Siam, 
165 ; superior to Siamese 
in intelligence, 165 ; mis- 
sions in, 196 ; persecution 
of Christians in, 197; pres- 
ent status of work in, 198 ; 
proclamation of religious 
liberty to, 198 ; a promising 
mission field, 205. 

Larsen, Rev. E. John, 128. 

Lawrence, Miss E., 254. 

Lee, Rev. Graham, 282. 

Leonard, Dr. A. B., 228. 

Levant, 43. 

Literature, Mohammedan, in 
China, 129. 



Livingstone, David, 42, 121. 
London Missionary Society, 

181. 
Lull, Raymund, 39, 76, 79; 

first missionary to Moslems, 

76. 
Lyon, Rev. J., 249. 

McFarland, Rev. S. G., 191. 
Mackay, Alexander M., 96. 
McKenzie, W. J., 302. 
Maclav, Rev. Robert S., D.D., 

280. 
Mc Williams, D. W., 277. 
Malay Archipelago, 103. 
Mandalay, 212. 
Marks, E. J., 229. 
Marriage among Moslems, 48, 

49. 
Martyn, Henry, 76, 79, 83. 
Martyrdom of Lull, 79. 
Martyrs, in Laos, 197. 
Mattoon, Rev. Stephen, 186. 
Mecca, 1, 10, 45, 54, 63, 127; 

pilgrimage to, 27 ; religious 

capital of Islam, 90. 
Medina, 10, 28, 42, 127. 
Meinhof, Professor Carl, 119. 
Me Kawng, 161. 
Me Xam River, 161. 
Merrick, Rev. J. L., 100. 
Merwa, 1. 
Methodist Episcopal Church, 

missionary society of, 224, 

228, 280. 
Methodist mission, southern, 

301. 
Miller, Dr. W. R., 4. 
Milman, Bishop, 233. 
Mirza Ibrahim, 100. 
Missionaries : first, to Siam, 

appeal of, to American 

churches, 181 ; favorable 

testimony regarding, 203 ; 

women, 254; pioneer, in 

Korea, 277. 
Missionary, first, to Moslems, 

39, 76. 



322 



INDEX 



Missions : medical, 141, 252, 
279 ; pioneer, difficulties 
of, in Siam, 188 ; results of, 
in Siam, 200 ; social results 
of, 201 ; obstacles to, in 
Siam, 204; rapid progress 
of, among Karens, 217. 

Missions in Korea : effect of 
war on, 283. 

Missions to Moslems, 37, 71 ; 
difficulties of, 135. 

Mizan-ul-Hak, 84. 

Moffett, Rev. Samuel A., 
282. 

Mohammed, 2, 13, 17, 21, 30, 
41, 56, 95, 130; an exile, 
10; quoted, 11; names of, 
20 ; human in Koran, 21 ; 
of tradition, 21 ; violates 
his own law, 50. 

Mohammedan Conference, 46. 

Mohammedan population, 3. 

Mohammedan University, 56, 
91. 

Mohammedan world, present 
accessibility of, 9. 

Mohammedanism, stronghold 
of, 3. 

Mohammedans, in Burma, 224. 

Mokpo, 300. 

Morocco, 7, 38, 87. 

Moslems : Chinese, 3 ; under 
Christian rule, 7 ; belief of, 
12 ; five duties of, 24 ; mis- 
sions among, 37 ; moral 
condition of, result of re- 
ligion, 38; under Christian 
rule, 54 ; missions to, 71 ; 
results of work for, 101. 

Moslem world, governments 
of, 7. 

Mott, John R., 312. 

Moulmein, former capital of 
Burma, 220. 

Moung Nau, first Buddhist 
convert, 239. 

Muir, 39, 41. 

Muscat, 75, 96. 



Nai Chune, first convert in 
Siam, 188. 

Nan Inta, 197. 

Nasariyeh, 97. 

National Bible Society of 
Scotland, 303. 

Needham, Hester, Saint of 
Sumatra, 104. 

Nejd, 126. 

Netherlands Missionary So- 
ciety, 181. 

New Testament, 277; trans- 
lation of, 237. 

Noctong River, 260. 

North Africa Mission, 87. 

Oman, 126. 

Omens, 61. 

O'Neal, Mrs. Charlotte, 226. 

Orr, Rev. R. W., 186. 

Paknam, 170. 

Pah Manuscripts, 175. 

Pan-Islamic movement, 11. 

Pan-Islamism, 142. 

Paradise, Moslem, 23. 

Parsees, 224. 

Pease, Mr. George, 87. 

Peet, 182. 

Pegu, 221. 

Peoples, Dr. and Mrs. S. C, 
198. 

Persia, 7, 43, 74; missions in, 
98; Moslem population of, 
98. 

Petchaburi, 170. 

Pfander, Karl Gottlieb, 76, 
83. 

Philippines, 5, 166. 

Phya Montri, 195. 

Pilgrimage to Mecca, 27. 

Pitsanuloke, 168. 

Plymouth Brethren, 303. 

Polygamy, 41, 48, 172; re- 
sults of, 45. 

Poole, Stanley Lane, 64. 

Prayer : Moslem, 1, 57 ; direc- 
tion of, 26 ; effect nullified, 



INDEX 



323 



26; five proper times for, 
26 ; importance of posture 
in, 26. 

Presbyterian Board, 277 ; sta- 
tions of, in Siam, 192. 

Presbyterian Church (North), 
92. 

Presbyterian Mission, 186 ; 
Australian, 302; Canadian, 
302. 

Price, Dr. Jonathan, 240. 

Prince Devawongse, 172. 

Prince Min Yong Ik, 280. 

Prome, 221, 231. 

Prophet, 50, 57. 

Prophets, major and minor, 
19, 20. 

Protestant Missions, begin- 
nings of, in Siam, 181. 

Punjab, Moslems in, 5. 

Pyeng Yang, 260, 282, 291; 
remarkable success of work 
in, 285, 295. 

Pyinmana, 246. 

Raheng, 177. 

Rangoon, 219, 225, 238, 

253. 
Rangoon Baptist College, 252. 
Reformed Church in America. 

97. 
Reformed Presbvterian Church, 

92. 
Reforms, Japanese, in Korea, 

275. 
Reid, Mr. and Mrs., 184. 
Rhenish Missionary Society, 

103. 
Richard, Dr. Timothy, 129. 
Riggs, Dr. Edward, 94. 
Roberts, Rev. W. H., 249. 
Robinson, 182. 
Roman Catholic Church, 

307. 
Ross, Rev. John, 277, 288. 
Russia : Moslems in, 5 ; Mos- 
lem population of, 127. 
Russo-Japanese War, 271. 



Safa, 1. 

St. John's College, 230. 

Salween, river, 211. 

Saracen, 11. 

Sau Kyung Jo, 289. 

Schuck, J. L., 186. 

Scranton, Dr. William B., 280. 

Scranton, Mrs. M. F., 297. 

Seoul, 261, 282; institutional 
work in, 291. 

Serampore, 181. 

Seward, Hon. George F., 202. 

Shamanism : dominant faith 
of Koreans, 269 ; super- 
stition of, 270. 

Shanghai, 202. 

Shans, number of, in Burma, 
217. 

Shears, Rev. A., 229. 

Sheikh Othman, 96. 

Shensi, 3, 131. 

Shrines, 270. 

Shwebo, 235. 

Shwe Dagon Pagoda, 219. 

Siam : area of, 159 ; climate 
of, 160 ; physical geography 
of, 161; 'flora of, 162; 
products of, 162 ; races in, 
163; population of, 164; 
government of, 177 ; prog- 
ress of mission work in, 191 ; 
promising mission field, 205 ; 
religious expectation in, 
206. 

Siamese : physical character- 
istics of, 164 ; characteris- 
tics of, 167 ; progressive 
character of, 168 ; desire 
for education, 171 ; vices of, 
173 ; indifference of, toward 
religion, 204. 

Sierra Leone, 3. 

Sikhs, 224. • 

Slavery, 52. 

Smith," Dr. George, 80. 

Smith, Dr. Eli, 93. 

Society, unstable foundation 
of, in Siam, 172. 



324 



INDEX 



Society for Propagation of the 
Gospel, 224, 229, 298; re- 
sults of work of, 236. 

Song-chen, 303. 

Sorai, 288. 

Spain, 8. 

Speer, Robert E., 49, 92. 

Sprenger, 39. 

Stanley, 121. 

Stevens, Rev. Dr. E. A., 251. 

Stock, Eugene, 76. 

Stockings, Rev. H. M., 235. 

Stone, George E., 98. 

Strachan, Rt. Rev. J. M., 
236. 

Sudan, 116; growth of Islam 
in, 116; population of, 116; 
Central, 120; Central, wo- 
men in, 120. 

Sudan United Mission, 119. 

Sumatra, 102; converts in, 
105. 

Swatow, 166. 

Swedish Missionary Society, 
133. 

Syen Chyun, 293. 

Syria, 8, 43. 

Taiku, 261, 293. 

Tai-ping Rebellion, 268. 

Talaings (Mons), 217. 

Talains, 247. 

Talismans, 61. 

Taoism, 268. 

Tarburi, 177. 

Tavoy, 246. 

Taylor, Canon, 37. 

Teheran, 100. 

Telang, Mr. Justice, 46. 

Tenasserirn, 222. 

Thandang, 227. 

Thibaw, 222. 

Thoburn, Bishop James M., 

225. 
Thomas, Mrs. B. C, 248. 
Thorns, Dr. Marion Wells, 98. 
Thonze, 246. 
Tibet, 213. 



Tisdall, Dr. St. Clair, 42. 

Titcomb, Bishop, 232. 

Tobolsk, 3. 

Tomlin, Rev. Jacob, 181. 

Tong-hak Movement, 268. 

Toungoo, 231. 

Tradition, Moslem, 41. 

Traditions, of Karens, 216. 

Tripoli, 7, 8, 54. 

Trotter, Miss Lillian L., quoted, 

142. 
Tunis, 8, 88. 
Turkestan, 4, 8, 132. 
Turkey, 43, 59, 72. 
Turkish Empire, missions in, 

92. 
Turner, Bishop H. B., 298. 

Uganda, 200. 

Underwood, Rev. H. G., 279. 

United States, 171. 

Unoccupied fields, 113, 117. 

Urumia, 100. 

Utradit, 165. 

Van Dyck, Dr. Cornelius, 

93. 
Veil, use of, unknown before 

Mohammed, 46. 
Victoria, Queen, 233. 
Vinton, Dr. J. H., 244. 

Wade, Mr. and Mrs., 240. 

Wahab bin Kabsh, 130. 

Wahabi revival, 11. 

War : Burman, 240 ; Russo- 
Japanese, 271. 

Warne, Bishop, 228. 

Warner, Miss Ellen, 226. 

Warren, Rev. C, 231. 

Watson, Rev. Charles R., 4. 

Wesleyan Methodist Mission- 
ary Society, 224. 

Wheelock, Mr. and Mrs., 239. 

Wiersum, Harry, 98. 

Wilson, Rev. Jonathan, 196. 

Winston, Rev. W. R., 225. 

Wolf, Dr. Joseph, 100. 



INDEX 



325 



Women : degradation of, un- 
der Islam, 46, 48 ; compara- 
tive freedom of, in Burma, 
215 ; position of, in Korea, 
264; work for, in Korea, 
297. 

Won-san, 261, 303. 

"Wurz, Pastor F., quoted, 
119. 

Yemen, 63. 
Yi Heni, 271. 



Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, 225, 303. 

Young Women's Christian 
Association, 225. 

Yunnan, 5, 131. 



Zainab, 44. 

Zanzibar, 3. 

Zem Zem, 1. 

Zenana, 46. 

Zwemer, Peter John, 97. 



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